The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend
by Deliwiel
Summary: The (hopefully) long-awaited sequel for "The Friend of My Enemy is Also My Enemy." Stane sets his plan to get revenge on Peter in motion, along with the rest of his sinister crew. Can Peter stop what Stane has in store for him before it's too late? Is everything what it seems? Rated T for injury & paranoia.
1. Chapter 1

_**Hello friends! I know it's been a while since I posted anything, but school has been a monster, and then my roommate broke her neck and I've been taking care of her, but I am back! Yes, for those who are interested, this is the sequel to "The Friend of my Enemy." Let me know what you guys think, because I've re-written this like, ten times XD**_

The prison yard was full of inmates wandering around, doing various things with their free time. Some were playing basketball, some were standing around smoking illegal cigarettes (though the guards didn't seem to care about the contraband material), and some of them looked like they were planning which of their fellow inmates they wanted to eat for lunch. Four of the inmates had positioned themselves inconspicuously around the yard, not drawing any unnecessary attention to themselves. After a few moments, the man in the southwest corner gave a signal to the fifth member of their group, who was over by the weights. The man got out from under the weights he'd been bench-pressing and grabbed a towel, wiping his face off while he looked around, picking out his target. Once he had his prey in sight, he tossed the towel on the ground, ignoring the guard's glares, and he began walking casually past the large prisoner he'd picked out, bumping into him with more force than was normal or necessary.

The prisoner grunted, but before he could say anything, the man who'd been benchpressing turned around and spoke first. "You'd better watch where you're going," Dmitri Smerdyakov, more commonly known as the Chameleon said as he turned back towards the man he'd just bumped into.

The other man's jaw hit the floor, and he incredulously replied, " _I_ need to watch where I'm going? You're the one who bumped me!"

"Well then, you should have moved out of the way, shouldn't you?"

The other prisoner growled as he advanced on Chameleon, and the shapeshifter continued his taunting. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised though. Your eyes are so small, I'm surprised you can see anything!" Knowing he'd succeeded in pushing the man's buttons, Chameleon tried to hide his smirk.

Indeed, that comment seemed to be the final straw for the large man, and he swung at Chameleon. With the force of the swing, it seemed like the other prisoner was doing his best to knock the shapeshifter's head off, or at least spin it around a few times. Chameleon was able to duck out of the way though, and he couldn't help the grin of satisfaction that crossed his face as he straightened back up.

"Something seem funny to you?" the other prisoner asked as he took another swing at Smerdyakov.

As Chameleon ducked the punch, he replied, "Not really...actually, yeah. Just watching you trying to fight is really funny."

The bulky prisoner yelled in frustration and threw himself at Chameleon, trying to squash the smaller prisoner. However, Chameleon was wiry, and he was once again able to duck out of the way of the larger man's attack. The rest of the inmates had started forming a crowd around the two fighting prisoners, save for the four of Chameleon's associates, who continued to hang back. As the brawl continued, the guards finally decided it was time to step in and end it.

"That's enough! Get down on the ground!" they yelled as they pulled their guns out of their holsters. "Lay flat on the ground and put your hands on your head!"

When their calls for order did nothing to stop the riot in the courtyard, all the guards got on their walkie-talkies and requested backup. The majority of the prisoners were either in the rec yard or the cafeteria eating, and an alarm began blaring, alerting all the prisoners that they were to return to their cells immediately and in an orderly fashion. Not that any of the inmates in the yard complied.

Finally, after what seemed like hours to the guards, their reinforcements finally arrived, and they were finally able to break through the crowd of prisoners, reaching the two who were fighting. They yanked the inmates off each other, but the one who grabbed the Chameleon didn't notice his prisoner grip the EMP bomb on the guard's belt until it was too late. Chameleon pushed himself away from the guard, holding up the handheld device coyly. The guard's eyes widened in terror, and he tried lunging for Chameleon, but he was too late.

The shapeshifter hit the button, sending a large electromagnetic pulse through the air and shorting out anything within thirty feet that had any sort of electrical output, including Smerdyakov's bracelet that prevented him from shifting.

The lights in the yard flickered and went out, and when the guard reached for his walkie-talkie, all he got from the other end was static. Chameleon smirked again as he reached down and removed the bracelet from his wrist. The guard chuckled, and Chameleon looked at him with an equally amused expression on his face. "What's so funny to you?" he asked the guard.

"You just set off an EMP blast," the guard panted. "Your nanobots are toast."

"That's what you think," Chameleon sneered. "Carbon-based nanobots aren't affected by EMP blasts."

The guard watched with wide eyes as the Chameleon proceeded to change shape right in front of him, taking on the appearance of one of the many guards in the prison. The thief waved condescendingly as he stepped back and melted into the crowd of guards and prisoners, immediately disguising himself and making it nearly impossible to tell who the shapeshifter was.

Knowing there was really nothing he could do to stop the thief from inside the yard, the guard turned and ran back inside, making his way to the control room as fast as he could.

Stane, Rhino, Shocker, and Mysterio had watched the proceedings from afar, waiting until they saw Chameleon remove his bracelet and transform into someone else before they finally made their move. They all moved forward with startlingly fast speed, grabbing beater sticks any guard belt they could find, keeping one each for themselves but tossing the rest of them to any prisoner they ran into.

Amdist all the chaos, no one really seemed to care when the four of them walked back inside, but if the guards had known where they were going, they would have been worried. Stane and his group got inside, avoiding all the fighting prisoners and guards, and when they got to a certain hallway, they splintered off; Stane walked down one way towards a specific cell, while Mysterio, Rhino, and Shocker went another way, towards the personal item lockup.

 _0-0-0_

The guard who'd been outsmarted by Chameleon raced into the control room, panting for breath as he skidded to a stop. "The prisoners…" he panted. "The Chameleon, he...he used an EMP bomb to take out his bracelet," he explained, finally regaining the ability to breathe like a normal human being. "He shifted right in front of me and disappeared into the crowd!"

The horrified looks on the other guard's faces reflected just how serious the situation was, but all of them snapped to attention when the warden walked inside the control room.

"What is going on?" the warden demanded.

"Sir, what are you doing here?" one of the guards asked, his hand slowly drifting down for his gun at his side.

"Um, I _work_ here? Which is more than I can say for all of you if this situation isn't contained immediately!"

"Sir, you're supposed to be out of town with your wife," explained the guard who confronted Chameleon in the yard, drawing his weapon and aiming it at his boss.

"What the-what are you doing, you moron? Put that away! You can kiss your job goodbye, I can tell you that," the warden exclaimed, holding up his hands. None of the guards looked very convinced that he was the warden though, and he finally sighed. "Well, that didn't go as planned."

Faster than anyone was expecting, Chameleon whipped out a flash-bang grenade he'd picked up from the armory on his way here, pulling the pin and tossing it on the ground before turning and ducking, covering his ears. The guards stared in confusion for a moment too long, and the grenade went off with a loud explosion and a bright light, stunning anyone who wasn't covering their eyes or ears. Chameleon stood back up, looking around smugly as he saw the guards on the ground, moaning as they tried to regain their sight and hearing, as well as their balance.

The thief stepped over them, quickly searching for a specific panel. The lock to Otto Octavius' cell door was kept on a completely different power grid, just in case the prison ever had something like this happen; that way, the doctor wouldn't be able to escape with the rest of the prisoners.

Finally finding the correct panel, the shapeshifter quickly yanked it open. He was met with a biometric hand scan, as well as a retinal scan. There was a control for the locked cell door, but also a release for the bolts holding the man's robotic limbs. Chameleon smirked to himself as he quickly placed his hand on the scanner, then leaned down and let the light flash into his eyes. A red "UNLOCKED" sign flashed above the panel, but before the Chameleon could celebrate, a loud _crack_ rang out, and the shapeshifter felt a searing pain in his side. Reaching down, he felt a warm sensation spreading from underneath his fingertips, and he stumbled forward.

He glanced down, seeing a large red stain growing over his clothing, and the pain hit him full force. His head swiveled around until he was looking behind him, where he saw the guard he'd grabbed the EMP bomb from in the yard. The guard was lowering his gun as he laid on his back, his arms quaking from the effort it had taken to aim on target and then pull the trigger. No matter how much he wanted to get revenge on the man who'd shot him, Chameleon knew he needed to get out of the control room and meet up with the rest of the group. Adrenaline surged through the Chameleon, momentarily blocking the pain in his side as he ran forward, passing all the guards who were just beginning to get to their feet.

As he got out of the control room, he morphed into another guard, though he knew the blood coming out of his side would be a dead giveaway that something was wrong. He staggered down the hallway towards evidence lockup, passing groups of guards and prisoners still fighting. Through the din of the fighting, he heard shouts of victory, though he didn't know which side was rejoicing. At the moment, he didn't really care; all he cared about was getting out of the prison and finding something to patch his wound up with.

As he stumbled down the hallway, Schultz, Rhino, and Mysterio appeared from around the corner. Shocker and Rhino were wearing their respective Rhino suit and electric armband, while Mysterio carried several pieces of electronic equipment. They stopped and stared in shock for a moment though when they saw their teammate, moving towards him quickly after their initial shock wore off.

"What happened?" Beck asked as he supported his fellow team member, shifting the electronic equipment to one arm while he wrapped one of Chameleon's arms around his shoulder.

"Lucky shot," Chameleon muttered. He slumped and clutched at his side in pain as the adrenaline suddenly began wearing off.

"Come on," Schultz said, waving his hand to try and get his teammates moving. "We gotta go."

Schultz and Rhino took off down the hallway, with their other teammates following much further behind. Every few moments, Schultz would stop and look behind him impatiently at the Beck and Chameleon, frustrated that they couldn't move faster. Rhino kept suggesting that they leave the two slowpokes to fend for themselves, but Schultz shook his head. They both still had parts to play in the plan Stane had, and besides. Schultz wasn't about to leave the two of them behind. He used to be only in it for himself, but then Adrian Toomes and the rest of their crew had abandoned him, and he was determined not to do that to any of his new teammates. Though it made Rhino growl in frustration, Schultz insisted that they wait for their other teammates to catch up.

 _0-0-0_

Ezekiel Stane broke off from the rest of his crew and walked briskly down the hallway towards the cell of Otto Octavius. When he rounded the final corner, he stared down the hallway at Octavius' cell. The door wasn't open, but Stane wasn't worried...yet. If Chameleon stuck to their plan, the door would be opening in three...two…

Stane smirked to himself as he watched the door open, just as they'd planned. Alarms began blaring as the door opened, and he heard guards yelling as they came barrelling down the hall towards him. He stopped just a few yards away from the cell as he turned to engage the approaching guards. While his back was turned to look at the guards, Otto Octavius made his way out of his prison; Stane turned back when he heard something coming from the cell, and he grinned.

"Doctor Octavius," he called out, resuming his original path towards the doctor while quickening his pace slightly. "I have a proposition for you, but before we can talk, we do have a small matter of some gua-"

Zeke was cut off as a long metallic arm wrapped itself around his neck, choking him and cutting him off in the middle of his sentence. The four guards all reached for their belts, for the EMP bombs they carried with them at all times, but Octavius spotted the movement. Before anyone could even grab the bombs, Otto's three other metal arms shot out quick as lightning, crashing into the guards and throwing them into each other. It took a few hits, but finally the last guard slid down the wall, his head lolling to the side. Once the last guard was out of the picture, Otto turned his attention to the man in his grasp, who was trying to get his fingers underneath the metal. Stane's face was slowly turning purple, and after a minute, Doc Ock sighed. He set the man down and released his neck, though he simply switched his grip from the man's neck to his torso.

"Why are you here?" Otto asked his coughing captive.

"As I was saying," Zeke rasped after he finished coughing, seeming very composed for a man who had just almost had his trachea crushed like it was nothing more than plastic. "I have a proposition for you that I think you'll be extremely interested in. I have a team inside the prison, and we're getting out of here; if you wish, you-"

"I don't work with others," Octavius cut him off, lifting his metal limb to toss the man aside.

"Not even if I promised you revenge on Spider-Man?" Stane asked quickly, realizing he probably should have led with that. To Ezekiel's immense relief, the scientist paused.

"How?" Octavius asked. Stane smirked. He knew it would be easy to convince the scientist to listen to him once he brought up Spider-Man.

"The plan is already in motion," Stane began explaining again. "All you have to do is follow my lead."

"I don't follow anyone."

"You will if you want to get out of here," Stane snapped. His tone of voice was enough to once again cause the scientist to falter in his plans of throwing him. "Now. Are you going to come with me and get revenge on Spider-Man, or are you going to stay here and wait for the guards to gang up on you?"

 _0-0-0_

"Took you guys long enough!" Stane snapped as Shocker, Rhino, Mysterio, and Chameleon came into view; Mysterio was supporting Chameleon, and the latter seemed to be getting paler with every second. Octavius raised his eyebrow slightly when he saw the rest of their team, but he didn't say anything condescending. Yet.

Schultz opened his mouth to defend the amount of time it had taken them, but Stane shook his head. "I don't care," he stated, even though he was clearly still frustrated. "Come on," he said. "We have to go now if we want to get out of here."

The six of them ran down the hallway, following Ezekiel towards their exit and escape. Rhino ran ahead, smashing through the door with his horn and leading them out into the gated courtyard. The gates were fifteen feet high, topped with another foot of barbed wire to prevent anyone from trying to scale the fence to escape.

The six of them looked to their side when they heard someone order, "Halt!"

There were about half a dozen guards, each with their guns drawn, aimed at the group. Without batting an eyelash, Doc Ock's four additional limbs shot out, smashing into the guards and grabbing their guns away from them. A few of the guards managed to get off a few rounds before Otto's arms smacked into them, but the bullets merely glanced off the armor of the Rhino and the arms of Octavius.

Soon, the guards were all on the floor in a crumpled heap, and while the small group of escapees heard more guards yelling and coming their way, they also heard a _thwap thwap thwap_ of rotating helicopter blades. When they looked up, they saw a chopper sitting just above the prison. Six different cables were lowered to the ground, and each member of the group grabbed ahold of the cables and began climbing up as the helicopter lifted higher and higher into the air. Chameleon was forced to just hang on as tight as he could, and when the others reached the chopper, they reeled his cable in themselves. The reinforcements for the guards reached the yard and tried to fire at the disappearing villains, but the chopper got them out of range quickly, and soon the six of them were out of sight.

"I can't believe that actually worked," Octavius admitted over the sound of the chopper once everyone was settled inside the chopper.

"Me either," Beck agreed just as loudly as he helped the Chameleon over to a spot to sit down, strapping the thief in so that he wouldn't fall over.

"You guys aren't the ones who got shot," the shapeshifter griped as he tried to shift positions to make himself more comfortable. He hissed and batted the man's hand away as Mysterio began examining the wound, and Beck gave him an exasperated look.

"You've lost a lot of blood," he chided. "We need to get this patched up if you don't want to bleed out before you can enjoy your newfound freedom."

"Beck, you take Chameleon to the meetup and start fixing his wound. There should be medical supplies there," Stane ordered. "Schultz, Octavius, and Sytsevich, you guys are going to go catch our spider."

"Just where do you think you are going?" Rhino asked suspiciously. "And how do we know where to go if you don't come with us?"

"I'm going to get something that's critical for our plan of revenge to work, " Stane said shortly. "And don't worry; Schultz knows where to go."

For a second, Schultz looked confused, and then understanding dawned on him. "The school," he explained to the confused members of their group. "Okay, so who are we going after?" Schultz asked, turning back to Stane.

"Just show up to the school and start causing mayhem; don't worry, he'll show up," Stane assured them, though the group looked frustrated.

"You keep saying you know who Spider-Man is, but I'm starting to think you don't actually have any idea," Beck accused. The other four nodded in agreement, though Schultz did so reluctantly. Stane's mouth pressed into a thin line.

"Even if I didn't know who he is, which I do, I'm sending you to the school that even Schultz knows he goes to. Isn't that enough? Don't you think he'll show up if you start attacking the students at his school, his friends and classmates?"

The rest of the crew looked reluctant, but they did see the logic in his plan. Schultz _did_ know what school they were going to, and if he really did go there, Spider-Man definitely wouldn't let innocent lives be put in danger if he could stop it.

"Okay, we go to school," Rhino finally agreed. Schultz and Octavius nodded as well, and Stane felt a strange feeling of maniacal joy; their plan was going well, and soon they'd be able to get their revenge on the kid who'd ruined their lives. After months of planning, things were starting to be put in motion.

"I'm coming for you, Peter Parker," Stane muttered quietly so that the others in his group wouldn't hear Spider-Man's name. "I'm coming for you, and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

 _ **So...Thoughts? Like It? Love it? Hate it? Excited for it? Let me know what you think!**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Hey guys! Here's chapter two! Forgot to put this at the beinning of the last chapter, but I don't own Spider-Man or Marvel or anything.**_

Peter sat in the classroom with his chin in his hand. He'd been trying to get better at patience for school to get out so he could don his Spider-Man suit and begin patrolling the streets, but sometimes it was harder to be patient than others. At the moment, it happened to be one of those hard times. His teacher was up in front of the class, droning on about something to do with science and chemistry, but Peter couldn't seem to focus on the words coming out of the man's mouth. After a few more minutes of not paying attention, Peter felt Ned nudge him slightly, and the distracted teenager jerked to attention, realizing that he'd been called out by the teacher.

"Hmm?"

The rest of the students around him began snickering at their classmate's confusion, but the teacher simply continued to stare at Peter with his eyebrows raised. "Oh, you're willing to grace us with your attention now, Mr. Parker?"

"Sorry," Peter said, sitting up straighter. There was a pregnant pause as Peter and the teacher continued to have a staring contest, until finally the older man broke the silence.

"Well?" his teacher asked, looking at him expectantly.

Peter's eyes widened slightly and he glanced around. "Well, uh…?"

"Do you know what Markovnikov's law states?"

Peter sighed internally; thankfully, that was a question he knew the answer to. "It, uh, it says that in an electrophilic reaction, the electrophile will go towards the side with more hydrogens, and the uh...the nucleophile will go towards the side with more carbons."

His teacher looked slightly frustrated that he hadn't been able to trip the young man up, so he simply pointed his finger at Peter and gave him a stern reprimand. "Next time the answer won't be so easy," he warned. "Pay attention in my class."

"Yessir," Peter agreed, nodding his head.

The teacher turned back to the whiteboard, and while Peter did pay closer attention, he also kept inadvertently glancing at the clock and keeping track of time. Only one more period and an assembly to go before school got out.

 _0-0-0_

After their last class of the day, all that was left was a school spirit assembly. As the students gathered and formed a line to walk down the hall to the auditorium, Peter glanced at the clock again.

Fifty more minutes, he thought to himself. He unconsciously shifted the straps on his backpack, accidentally bumping Ned. "Sorry man," Peter muttered.

Their teacher led them out the door and down the hallway to the auditorium, and other classes began filing out as well. Once everyone got out of their classrooms, the students melted from straight lines into a mass of people flooding the hallways, despite all the teachers calling for their students to get back in line. Peter and Ned saw Harry Osborn in the crowd, and they made their way over to him. They greeted each other and watched with slightly amused faces as the teachers futilely tried anything they could to get the students back in line.

Suddenly, Peter heard someone's voice getting louder and louder behind him, and he didn't even need his super senses to let him know to dodge the shove he knew was coming his way. "Hey Parker," someone said snidely, obviously not caring that his prey had dodged his physical assault.

"Hey Eddie," Peter replied with a sigh. He turned around to face one of the school bullies; the kid's smirking face did nothing to improve Peter's impatience to get out and do his hero thing. Peter's fists clenched in an attempt to stay calm as Brock began speaking again.

"We missed you in robotics lab yesterday. Wait a minute...no we didn't," he said after pretending to pause and think for a moment, giving Peter a jerkish grin that the other teenager simply ignored.

"What do you want, Eddie?"

"I just wanna see how you and your freak friends are doing," Brock sneered. "Gotta make sure our high school has all the fundamental groups...jocks, hot girls, and losers."

Peter felt Ned place a hand on his shoulder, warning him not to engage, but Peter wasn't worried about losing his temper with Eddie over such a little jab. He simply replied, "But...you're not a jock, so what does that make you?" Peter's face took on an innocent-looking mask, knowing full-well that Eddie played played golf, which many people in their school didn't actually consider a sport. However, no one was brave enough to tell Eddie Brock that. "Does that make you a hot girl or a loser?"

Eddie's face tightened, and Peter knew he'd struck a nerve, but to his surprise, Eddie didn't lash out. Physically, at least. "Tut, tut, Peter. Being so rude and petty? What would your parents say? Oh wait…they can't say anything, can they?" The bully smirked, and as the people who heard what Eddie had said began whispering in hushed tones, wondering what was going to happen, Peter felt Ned's hand lift off his shoulder, giving him permission to jump at Eddie. The blood rushed to Peter's ears, and he began seeing red; his muscles tensed, and he was trying to convince himself that it wasn't worth it to start a fight, but he was quickly losing that inner argument. Thankfully, before he could do anything he didn't think he'd regret at all, someone else intervened.

"Brock, Parker," a sharp voice called out before the two could do anything. The two teenagers looked over at who had called them out; it was their math teacher, and she gave them a stern look. "We aren't going to have any problems, are we?" she asked.

Peter gave Eddie one last withering look before muttering, "No ma'am." He began backing away from Eddie, though the two high schoolers kept their eyes locked on each other while they moved apart. Peter watched as Brock met up with Flash and a few other friends, and everyone began shooting Peter dirty looks. The teenager knew they were probably saying not-so-nice things about him, but he didn't care. He was still fuming from what Eddie had said about his parents.

"I'm sorry, Peter," Ned muttered quietly, knowing how touchy the subject of his parents could make his friend.

"I'm fine," Peter clearly lied, crossing his arms and looking around, not making eye contact with anyone around them. He could feel Ned and Harry watching him, wondering what they should do, so he straightened up and wiped his upset look off his face, at least as much as he could, pretending like nothing was bothering him.

While everyone was still milling around in the hallway, slowly making their way towards the auditorium, an announcer came on the intercom. It was a high school though, and over the din of all the teenagers, plus the staticky quality of the speakers themselves, people had a hard time making out what was being said. One of the teachers rolled his eyes as his cell phone started ringing; he answered it, giving any student looking at him a look that promised their noisiness would be addressed soon.

Peter was watching the teacher with boredom, but when the teacher's eyes widened and he began speaking more urgently, Peter's curiosity was piqued. The adult caught the teenager looking at him and he quickly turned around, preventing Peter from attempting to read his lips, though Peter knew that he didn't have that ability in the slightest. He knew that something was wrong though, and he had the uncontrollable desire to figure out what was going on.

"I'll be right back," Peter whispered to Ned and Harry, disappearing into the throng of students quickly. He heard Harry start to question where he was going, but he ignored his friend for the moment; Ned knew better than to ask, though Peter could almost feel the inquisitive glance that his old friend was giving him as he snuck closer to the teacher. The older man had hung up the phone and gathered a few other teachers around himself, speaking to them with quiet urgency. Peter got as close as he dared, then listened with all of his might, ignoring the group of students giving him the odd looks as he parked himself right by their group.

"...Have to get everyone into a classroom," one teacher said. "The school's being put on lockdown."

"Do they know which prisoners escaped?"

The first teacher shook his head. "They didn't mention anyone specific, just that there was a massive breakout, and they want all schools on lockdown until the police can get the situation contained. The last place the police saw the escaped fugitives was only about two miles away from here, and that was almost thirty minutes ago; the principal wants us to get all the students into classrooms and put the school on lockdown immediately. Police are sending backup to as many schools as they can, but they don't know when they'll get to us, so we need to take precautions. "

The teachers nodded and began to turn around, forcing Peter to duck back into the throng of the students to hide his eavesdropping. He snuck his way back to Ned and Harry, popping up behind them and causing them both to jump when he casually said, "Hey guys."

"Peter!" Harry said, taking in a deep breath to calm his racing heart. "Where'd you go?"

"Just to, uh...get a drink," Peter said. Harry gave him a skeptical look, but thankfully he didn't press the matter. Ned looked like he was going to ask something too, but the teachers began corralling the students, trying to herd them back into the closest classrooms, causing all the highly excited and rambunctious teenagers to begin questioning everything.

"What's going on?"

"Why aren't we going to the assembly?"

"Are we in trouble?"

"Who touched me?!"

"Who didn't put on deodorant this morning?"

Peter thought he could hear Flash's annoying voice shout some questions, but he didn't pay any attention to the bully, because at that moment, the hair on the back of his neck and arms raised. The teenager looked around, wondering what was causing the physical reaction in him, but he couldn't see anything in his immediate areas that would cause his spidey senses to go off. He turned to ask Ned and Harry if they felt like anything was weird, but suddenly, there was a massive crash, and the entire high school body jumped and screamed, looking over at what had made the sound. When Peter caught sight of the cause of the commotion, his blood ran cold. A hole had been smashed in the wall, and not only was Rhino standing in the hole, but Doc Ock was right behind him, followed by one of the Vulture's men. It was the man who had attacked Peter outside the school at homecoming, and Peter was pretty sure that the guy was going by the name "The Shocker."

For a moment, there was just silence. Everyone stared at the three criminals, wondering who they were, but the silence only lasted a moment, and then it was like a dam broke. Kids began running around screaming, bumping into each other and falling down only to help each other back up so they could continue running around as they tried to get away from the intruders. The teachers were all staring in shock at the three men, unsure of how to handle the situation. Peter also stared at the escaped prisoners in shock, but he soon shook himself out of his faze. He knew he had to get into his suit and distract the fugitives from the rest of his friends and peers. The teenager made eye contact with Ned, who nodded, silently telling Peter that he'd make up an excuse for Harry as to why Peter had disappeared again.

Peter raced for the boy's bathroom, grateful that he kept his suit in the back zipper of his backpack at all times. His mind was racing a million miles a minute as he ducked into a stall and proceeded to change; he'd faced all three of the bad guys outside, but the only one who had worked with a group before had been the Shocker, and Peter didn't think that he had much of a leader's air about him. Rhino might have been big on muscles, but when it came to brain, the poor guy just didn't have what it took to put together a team, much less lead a breakout. The only one at the school who seemed powerful enough to do that was Otto Octavius, and Peter had a sinister feeling that it wasn't Doc Ock who put the plan together and was pulling the strings.

 _If it wasn't anyone out there, who could it be?_ Peter thought grimly to himself as he exited the stall and stood by the sinks. He had to get back out into the crowd to fight the maniacs threatening the student body, but if Spider-Man suddenly appeared in the hallway, Peter wondered if people would notice that Peter Parker was gone and start to put pieces together; they would quickly figure out that he was the masked hero. He glanced around the bathroom, as if something inside would help him escape, and he was slightly shocked but pleasantly surprised when his eyes landed on a window.

The school had this weird obsession about saving energy, so they put very low wattage bulbs in the bathroom, and set them so they would only turn on after a certain time of day when the sun would go down, which was usually after the kids left, so it didn't make sense to anyone. However, to make sure the students still had lights in the bathroom, the school had installed frosted windows up high on the walls in order to let natural light in, which they said was healthier for the students anyways, while still allowing the students their privacy. Peter grinned. The windows were high enough that ordinary students wouldn't be able to climb out the window without help, but that wasn't a problem for the wall-crawling teenage hero. He simply ran over and placed his hands on the walls and began climbing up. As he climbed, he promised himself that he would clean the suit as thoroughly as he could to make sure he got any and all bathroom germs off the suit, but at the moment, those were the least of his worries.

When he finally reached the window, Peter pried the glass pane open, grateful to see that there weren't any bars or wiring of any sort. It was a tight squeeze, especially since he still had his backpack on, but he managed to cram his body through with only minor cramping in his thighs and back, and when he was finally outside the school, he tossed his backpack into some bushes to keep it hidden before finally making his way to the front of the school.

He could see through the windows that nothing much had changed; Shocker, Rhino, and Doc Ock had moved inside and had begun corralling the students and teachers into the center of the hallway. Peter could see several people on their cell phones, but none of the villains were doing anything about it. Either they didn't see them, which Peter didn't find very likely at all, or they didn't mind that people were calling the cops. If the cops were called, it would mean Spider-Man would have a chance of showing up. And really, the cops had tried stopping these guys before, and without the help of Spider-Man, they hadn't had much success.

Spider-Man walked over to the hole in the wall, standing just inside it as he crossed his arms, waiting for the intruders to notice him. However, they seemed to be too busy trying to keep people from running, so Peter finally cleared his throat loudly enough that the kids closest to him heard. They looked over and began talking and pointing, finally grabbing the attention of the bad guys.

They turned around to see what was causing the excess ruckus, and they saw their nemesis waving patronizingly at the three villains as they stood there.

When he locked eyes with Peter, Otto Octavius sneered. One of his metallic arms lashed out and tried to grab Spider-Man, smashing the wall even more, but Peter didn't even need his senses to help him get out of the way of that attack.

"Hey guys," Peter called out, changing his accent slightly so that his friends inside wouldn't recognize his voice. "Y'know, I know none of you probably went to school...except you, Otto," he added, gesturing to the six-armed man. "But uh, I think registration for this particular school is closed."

"We knew you wouldn't be able to resist coming to help your friends," Schultz gloated as he walked out of the school, rubbing his armband almost lovingly. Peter's ribs ached at the sight of it, remembering the beating he'd taken both times he'd gone up against men wearing it, but he didn't dwell on the ghost pain.

"I just heard that you guys escaped prison, so I followed the stench of natural evil. Otto's haircut there also sticks out for a mile around," Peter quipped. The scientist growled, but Spider-Man didn't retract his statement. He was panicking slightly though; he had to get the three villains away from the school and his friends before they gave away that he was a student there, because once again, people would begin to put the pieces together about what Peter did when he disappeared at random times. Thankfully, now that their prey had shown up, the three bad guys seemed to have forgotten all about the high school students and teachers, and they were focused on following Peter outside.

"You know, guys, I'm flattered that you broke out just to say hi to me, I really am, but a card would have been fine. Also, y'know, I woulda been okay if you just hadn't reached out at all," he said with a shrug as he continued backing up.

"Why don't you ever stop talking?" Otto growled.

"It's just part of my charming personality," Peter said with another shrug and a smirk, though the three villains couldn't see the latter expression.

"Enough talk," Rhino snarled. "You come with us now." To emphasize his statement, the large Russian charged the wall crawler, who deftly backflipped out of the way, landing on top of a large truck in the parking lot.

"Tempting," Peter called. "But I think I'm gonna pass on coming quietly!"

The smirk on Shocker's face gave Peter a slightly uneasy feeling. "We were hoping you were gonna say that," Schultz informed the teenager. Before Peter could react, one of Octavius's arms flung out, reaching the teenager on top of the large black truck. Only his quick reflexes and spidey senses helped Peter avoid getting grabbed by the large claw, but even then, he wasn't fast enough to avoid getting hit entirely. The arm still managed to land a hit across his back, sending him flying off the truck.

As Peter fell to his feet in a crouch, his shoulder throbbed. He couldn't pay any attention to it though, because he had to jump out of the way again as the Russian Rhino charged him, picking up and tossing cars out of the way with his horn like they weighed nothing. The cars fell in heaps around Peter, and he had to twist and twirl out of the way to avoid being hit by the heavy vehicles.

The spider took a second to glance behind him, and he saw the football field. He quickly turned and began swinging towards the large grassy area; if he could get the bad guys away from the parking lot, there was less of a chance that he'd be crushed by flying vehicles.

When he glanced behind him, he was glad to see that the bad guys were following him, but his eyes widened as he realized Doc Ock was carrying a car in one of his metal arms while two other limbs carried him, stepping over the ground with such long steps, Peter knew the scientist would catch up to him soon. The fourth arm was waving around rather creepily, not being used to carry anything.

"Well there goes the idea to get away from the cars," Peter grumped to himself as he swung into the field. He hopped onto one of the goal posts, watching as his three attackers entered the field. They spotted him immediately, and the teenager suddenly realized he'd counted wrong. Only two of his pursuers had come onto the field. Shocker was nowhere to be seen, and Peter took a moment to wonder where he was. A moment was all he could spare though, because Octavius hurled the car he was carrying at the spider, and Peter was forced to jump out of the way.

The car smashed into the goal post where Peter had been positioned mere seconds before. Both the car and the goal post suddenly took on different shapes, and Peter grimaced. That would be an expensive repair.

When he landed on the grass, he prepared to run for the two mechanical men in front of him, but his senses screamed at him to look out. He tried ducking out of the way, but was too slow, and Shocker's fist collided with his stomach. The teenager felt a couple ribs crack, and a terrible pain exploded in his stomach. He rolled six or seven times on the ground before coming to a rest, and he heard the three men chasing him begin laughing. Deja vu paid him a visit as he finally rolled to a stop and let out a groan as he remembered homecoming.

He pushed himself to his feet, but was forced to dive out of the way again as Rhino charged him. He rolled into a somersault towards Shocker and kicked himself into the air, firing as many webs as he could into Schultz's face, but before he could attack anyone else, a claw wrapped itself around his back and shoulders, yanking him out of the air.

The teenager let out a surprised yelp as the claw pulled him back, barely noticing when it clamped around his shoulder painfully. He struggled to get away, but the grip of the mechanical arm was too strong, and his own arms were mostly restrained by the position of the claw holding him. Peter was brought over to the waiting Doc Ock and Rhino, and soon Shocker joined the group.

"I'm disappointed, Spider-Man," Octavius said, tsking at the teenager as if he'd failed a test. "I expected much more of a fight from you."

Peter saw one of Otto's claws making its way towards his face, and he realized the scientist intended to unmask him then and there. Peter renewed his efforts to get away, but his arms were pinned to his side thanks to Otto's claw. He tilted his head as far back as it would go, trying to give himself any more time that he could in order to try and get his arms free, but he knew it wouldn't be enough. The claw was approaching his face fast, and he felt his neck begin to cramp as he pushed his head back as far as it would go.

Just when Octavius was about to grab and remove Peter's mask, Shocker's voice cut through the air sharply. "Wait," he ordered. Thankfully, the scientist listened. The claw paused, mere centimeters away from Spider-Man's face. "We're supposed to hold off until we get back with the others," Schultz reminded the octopus.

 _So I was right,_ Peter thought to himself. _There's someone else behind this, pulling the strings. Who is it though?_

Octavius growled, and for a moment, Peter wasn't sure if the scientist was going to listen to his partner, but finally the claw lowered away from the hero's face. Peter let out a breath of relief and renewed his struggles to get away. Octavius saw him struggling though and the claw tightened, making the high schooler gasp in pain as his ribs and shoulders reminded him that they were fragile and prone to breaking, even with his super strength, so he stilled.

"What are we waiting for, then?" Otto asked impatiently, turning and walking towards the other end of the football field, where an exit waited. Peter watched it get closer and closer, wondering how he was going to get himself out of the mess he'd landed himself in.

 _0-0-0_

May Parker was at home, having gotten off work early, and she was using the time before her nephew got home from school to do a bit of cleaning. The apartment was never a pigsty, but there were times that May wished that they were able to keep their living space a little more neat, but with her at work all day usually, and Peter in school, and then doing his Spider-Man thing, they didn't have a lot of time to deep clean. She began picking up things Peter left on the floor and the couch before moving over to do the dishes.

Their apartment didn't have a dishwasher, but May didn't mind; washing the dishes by hand gave her some time to think, and on the rare occasion when Peter came home while she was doing them, he'd grab a rag and dry them with her, which was always fun. As she let the sink fill with the soapy water, May grabbed the TV remote from the counter and turned on the set, flipping to the local news channel.

" _-tuning in, we are in the middle of a breaking story. A riot in a prison today resulted in the escape of six inmates, and while the names are being withheld at this time, unnamed sources tell us that at least one of them was super-powered."_ That line caught May's attention, and she turned from the sink and the dishes to watch the screen, her eyes widening slightly as she took in the scene playing in front of her. Lights were flashing all around, coming from cop cars, fire trucks, and ambulances, all stationed outside the prison.

She quickly dried her hands off on her jeans and reached for her phone in her pocket, dialing her nephew's number.

"Pick up your phone, Peter," she muttered as she watched the screen.

"Hey, you've reached Peter Parker, leave a message!"

At the tone, May did indeed leave a message for her nephew to listen to. "Peter, it's me. Look, I know you've probably heard already, but there was a breakout at one of the prisons today. When you get this, just call me back, let me know you're safe. Seriously, Peter, what's the point of having a cell phone if you're never going to answer it?" she added in a lighter tone. "Anyway, like I said, call me back when you can. I love you."

She ended the phone call and went back to watching the news, unconsciously putting her phone to her lip. She finally shook herself out of her daze and stuck her phone in her pocket before going back to the dishes in the sink. She hardly paid attention to the dishes though, instead choosing to focus her attention on listening to the news story. There were interviews with cops and some of the guards from the prison, but none of them said anything about who had escaped.

She was just starting on the last few pots and pans when a knock sounded on her door. She looked at her sudsy hands, then around her for a towel to wipe her hands on, and the knock sounded again.

"I'm coming," she called out, finally spotting a towel and grabbing it, wiping the suds off her hands. The knock sounded again, and she rolled her eyes. "Hold on just a second," she said exasperatedly as she strode towards the door. She grabbed the handle and opened the door, revealing a man who looked strangely familiar standing in her doorway. "Hi," she said with a cautious smile; something about this man seemed off, but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what it was. "Can I help you?"

"Hello, May," the man said, advancing into the apartment even though she hadn't invited him in. "It's been a while."

Suddenly May realized where she'd seen the man before. Her eyes widened when she realized it was the same man who'd broken into the hospital room after Peter had been kidnapped! She immediately tried to shut the door, blocking him from coming the rest of the way into the apartment, but he was stronger than she was, and he simply shouldered the door open.

"That's no way to treat a guest, May," he chided. "I hope that's not how you raised Peter. Anyway, I need you to come with me; I'm afraid it's a matter of urgency."

May raised her hand, intending on defending herself, but Stane apparently expected that, and he batted her hand away effortlessly. She opened her mouth to scream, but Stane lunged forward and twirled her around, so that her back was pressed against his chest, and he covered her mouth with his hand.

"We can't have any of that now, can we?" he asked disapprovingly as he kicked the door shut with his foot so that no one could see their struggles. After a few minutes of struggling, May finally got one of her arms free and she rammed her elbow back into Zeke's ribs, making him grunt in pain and loosen his grip just enough so that she was able to squeeze away. She immediately ran for the sink, where she'd left the last few pots and pans in the water, and she grabbed the first thing she could, which happened to be a large pot. She swung it around, aiming for Zeke's face. The younger man expected it though, and he was able to duck out of the way.

May wasn't done yet though. When Zeke straightened back up, she brought the pot around for round two, and this time she managed to clip him in the side of the head, dazing him long enough for her to sprint to the living room area, pulling her phone out of her pocket. She was just about to press a number to dial when she heard a snarl from behind.

 _ **Thoughts? I'd love to hear what you guys think, and would it help you to leave a review if I told you it was my birthday? :D XD Just kidding, you don't have to leave a review because of that, but I would love to hear what you think!**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Hey guys! Here's chapter three. Let me know what you think! Also, I probably won't be posting the rest of the week, just because it's Thanksgiving time in the US, so I'll be spending time with my family :)**_

 _ **Also, thank you to everyone who has commented, favorited, and/or followed the story! You're all fantastic people!**_

 _ **I don't own anything to do with Marvel :/**_

"I wonder if Chameleon's gunshot was taken care of," Schultz mused out loud.

"Wait, Chameleon's in on this too?" Peter asked, pausing his struggles to get away momentarily. "How many of you got out?"

"Guess you're gonna find out soon," Schultz replied darkly. Once they'd left the football field, the three villains had ducked into an abandoned subway tunnel close to the school to avoid detection; they'd been walking for probably thirty minutes, and Peter wondered where it was they were going.

"Wish he'd just sent the chopper," Schultz grumbled after a few more minutes.

"Stop whining," Octavius said, rolling his eyes at his companion. The three of them whined and complained and bickered with each other for a few more minutes, then Rhino put a stop to it when he pointed and exclaimed,

"Look! End of tunnel comes. We stop fighting like old maids now?" he asked gruffly.

"Oh no," Peter interjected. "You weren't fighting like old maids. When old maids fight, they're actually scary. You guys are just more annoying than anything."

"Ignore it," Schultz cautioned as Ock's face tightened, though Schultz looked upset at Peter's comment as well. "We're close; we just need to make it a few more minutes with him."

Octavius didn't look happy about it, but thankfully he didn't do anything to maim Peter like he obviously wanted to. The group made their way towards the tunnel exit, but before they could get out, Octavius pulled to a sudden stop.

"Wait," he said. The rest of the group looked at him, wondering why he'd halted. While they all seemed distracted, Peter tried straining against the hold the doctor had on him again, but he was still unable to budge or move the metal arm at all.

"Why wait?" Rhino asked, lifting his faceplate as he turned his armor around to look at the scientist.

"Let's just unmask him here and now," Octavius offered.

"You gotta be kidding," Schultz said, not impressed.

"Think about it," Octavius insisted quietly. "Say we bring Spider-Man in; how much longer do you think you, or any of us for that matter, will be useful to him? He's bent on getting revenge, even though he promised us our own vengeance on the Spider."

Schultz and Rhino considered the logic behind Otto's argument, but when they didn't answer right away, the doctor continued on. "He's a man looking out only for himself. You know he'll more than likely try and get rid of us once we do what he asks."

"Anyone wanna tell me who this mysterious 'him' is?" Peter asked.

All three of the villains growled, "Shut up!" before turning back to their own conversation, completely ignoring Peter. While they weren't paying attention to him, Peter began trying to wiggle loose again, but his shoulder was still hurting, and Ock's claw was too strong.

"You don't know that's what he's gonna do," Schultz said, though he didn't necessarily sound convinced himself. While the three of them continued arguing amongst themselves, Peter noticed one of Ock's claws starting to inch its way closer to his face, opening and closing almost eagerly, like it was hungry to see who was under the mask. Peter renewed his efforts to get away, straining his neck back as well, leaning as far away from the advancing claw as he could. He knew he wouldn't be able to stop the claw from removing his mask, but he wasn't going to give up his identity without a fight. Thankfully, Shocker seemed to notice the movement too.

"Wait, Octavius," he said, not trying to hide that he sounded annoyed.

"Why should we wait?" Otto asked incredulously, though thankfully the claw stopped advancing, at least for the time being. "What harm is one peek going to do?"

Schultz looked like he was trying to come up with a good excuse, but he couldn't think of one, so he finally inclined his head, showing that he was giving up the argument. Otto grinned triumphantly, and Peter tried to stall.

"Don't do that with your face, Doc," the teen quipped. "It just makes you look even worse, which I honestly didn't think was possible."

Octavius growled. "I hope you've enjoyed all your jokes, Spider. You won't be making any more once we're done with you."

"Is that what you told you barber after he cut your hair?"

Peter felt the grip around his chest begin to tighten, and he gasped and wriggled as he felt his already-sore ribs begin to bend and creak dangerously.

"Octavius," came Shocker's warning tone. The pressure stopped increasing, but it didn't lessen any. Peter was left gasping for breath as his lungs felt like they had been shrunk two sizes.

"I guess...I should say thanks," Spider-Man panted, glaring down at Schultz. "But...I wouldn't be in this...mess if it...weren't for you…in the first place."

"You wouldn't be in this mess at all if you'd just minded your own business," Schultz snapped. Rhino nodded in agreement, and to show his agreement, Ock simply squeezed a tiny bit more.

Suddenly, Peter's senses told him something was flying at the group at a high speed, and he braced himself. However, instead of hitting him, whatever it was hit the scientist carrying him in the head instead. Octavius let out a surprised growl and whirled around, but there was nobody there. Spider-Man tried to look around for whatever the projectile might have been, but he couldn't see anything.

For some reason, the teenager had the feeling to look behind them in the shadows, and when he did, his heart began pounding in his chest, and he couldn't stop the grin that spread across his face. A horned figure was standing in the shadows, waiting for another opportunity to strike, holding his retractable batons. Peter realized that's why he hadn't been able to find what was thrown; the baton had been pulled back into Daredevil's hands.

 _All I need is to just get out of Ock's claw now,_ Peter thought, wishing there was something Daredevil could do to loosen the doctor's grip on the high schooler.

As if the horned vigilante could hear Peter's thoughts, the next place the baton was aimed at was the back of Otto's head, at the base of his skull where the chip controlling the mechanical limbs was placed. Peter figured Daredevil didn't know about the doc's chip, he was just trying to place a good head shot.

When the baton connected, it was from a far enough distance that it wasn't enough to knock the scientist out, or to disrupt the chip's frequency for long, but it was enough to shock the doctor, and he loosened the grip he had on Peter just enough so that the high schooler was finally able to wiggle out of the claw's grasp. The high schooler launched himself out of the grasp of the octopus and stuck to the ceiling of the subway, dangling just out of reach of everyone's grasp except for Octavius's metal limbs. While Peter had been making his escape, Daredevil had run along the shadows towards the exit of the tunnel, and Peter followed him. Daredevil had climbed up a fire escape, and Peter climbed up the side of the wall to talk to his fellow masked man.

"Hey," he greeted Daredevil as he finally reached the other man's height. The horned man was facing the tunnel exit, waiting for the three bad guys to emerge. "What are you, uh, what are you doing here?"

"Long story," Daredevil replied.

"Seems like a lot of stuff with you is a 'long story,'" Peter pointed out, adding the last two words in a gruff voice, trying to impersonate his horned companion.

"Like yours is any shorter?" the devil of Hell's Kitchen asked. Peter shrugged and was about to respond when he heard a yell from behind them.

"Spider!" Rhino bellowed as the three of them emerged from the tunnel's exit. "We are not finished with you yet!"

"No, I know you're not," Peter called back. "And I'm not finished with you guys either!" He turned to Daredevil and gestured at the three villains below. "Listen, Doc Ock there has a chip in the base of his skull that lets him control those metal arms; disrupting its signal should give us an edge over him. Wanna join in the fight? I think if we team up, we've got a good shot at beating them."

"A willing partnership?" Daredevil asked. "I dunno, kid. It just doesn't feel right if we're not at each other's throats half the time, does it?"

"I mean, we've only worked together once, and then I was in your city; you're in my city now, and I'm sure you'll get on my nerves sooner or later," Peter replied with a shrug.

" _I'll_ get on _your_ nerves?" Daredevil asked with a smirk. "What about if you get on mine?"

"Me? Get on your nerves?" Peter asked incredulously, though the older vigilante could hear the humor in the young man's voice. "Never!"

"I guess you wouldn't be _getting_ on them," Daredevil accused. "You've just got a permanent residency there."

"Are you gonna come face us like men, or are you gonna sit there and chat like old ladies the rest of the day?" Octavius called up to them.

"What is with you guys and old ladies? It's creepy!" Peter yelled. He then looked over to his once-again temporary partner, and he gestured at the men. "Shall we?"

Daredevil smirked. "Thought you'd never ask."

Peter propelled himself off the wall and landed on the ground, immediately charging the men waiting for him. He was forced to roll out of the way as Doc Ock's arms began swinging around, trying to connect with his face. Daredevil leapt off the fire escape and took on Shocker; Peter saw out of the corner of his eye as the horned vigilante ducked and weaved with amazing agility out of the reach of Shocker's armband. Peter had to turn his full attention back to his own fight though when Rhino bellowed and charged, lowering his horn as if he were going to skewer the teenage arachnid, and Peter was forced to jump out of the way, landing about halfway up a wall on the side of the building he'd just vacated.

From his perch on the wall, Spider-Man began firing different types of webs at the escaped prisoners, trying to trip them up or give him and Daredevil any advantage he could, but he was only able to keep that up for about thirty seconds before he had to dive out of the way when Doc Ock's mechanical arms tried to grab him again. He hit the streets in a somersault, but as he vaulted to his feet, he narrowly avoided being clobbered by Rhino's metal fist.

Peter heard a grunt of pain, and he looked over at Daredevil and Shocker. His heart beat faster when he realized that Schultz had managed to get in a hit on Daredevil's chest, sending the horned vigilante flying through the air. The older man crashed to the ground, and Peter was about to run over to his companion, but the hair on the back of his neck began to rise, and he ducked out of the way of one of Otto's arms, narrowly avoiding being grabbed.

He saw the arms coming around again, and though he tried to jump out of the way, the fact that Octavius had four metal arms made things a little more difficult; Peter couldn't avoid all four arms at once, and one of the metal appendages wrapped around the teenager's torso once again. Peter reached down to try and pry the arm away from his chest, but before he could even grab the cool metal, the scientist had reached his arm back and thrown the high schooler down the alleyway, where he fell into a pile of scrap metal and garbage.

When he made contact with the ground, Peter felt a sharp, shooting pain lance through his thigh, and he couldn't stop the cry of pain that forced its way from his throat. With slightly hazy vision, the teenager looked down and saw a piece of rebar sticking out of his thigh, and he felt slightly nauseous. Through the rushing sound in his ears, he heard Octavius laughing cruelly in the distance, though Peter couldn't tell if the scientist was getting closer or not. He pushed himself to his feet, placing his hand against the wall at his back to try and keep himself steady, though it didn't do much good.

Daredevil watched from his spot on the ground as Spider-Man flew through the air; he could sense the teen's heart rate pick up, and soon the horned vigilante smelled the sharp, tangy smell of blood. He got to his feet and rushed over, ignoring his own tender ribs. Daredevil was suddenly grateful that the guy with the armband had punched him so that when the kid landed, the older man was closer and able to get to him faster. He reached the teenager just as he was just standing up. "Kid!" Daredevil said urgently, grunting when he grabbed Peter by the shoulders as the kid started to collapse.

Peter felt the secure grip of Daredevil around his shoulders, and he looked behind them, seeing the three bad guys approaching, and while he hated to run from a fight, he knew that he and Daredevil didn't stand a chance with both of them injured.

"Hold on tight," Peter grunted, shoving his pain to the back of his mind. He and Daredevil looked back again and saw the supervillains closing the distance between them quickly, and Peter knew they didn't have time to waste. "Daredevil, grab on," he repeated, more urgently. The horned vigilante looked as skeptical as one could look with half their face covered, but even he could see that he and Spider-Man were outnumbered, and it would only end poorly for them if they stayed. He finally grabbed ahold of the young man, wrapping his arms around Spider-Man's back.

Once he felt Daredevil holding on, Peter fired a web towards the roof of a surrounding building and pulled them both up out of the alley, away from Octavius, Schultz, and the Rhino. The two masked heroes swung away, though Daredevil could sense the pain the younger man was going through; his shoulders were shaking, the wound was radiating heat and pain, and the horned vigilante could practically hear the sweat dripping off the kid's face under the mask.

"Hey," Daredevil called over the whistling wind after they'd been swinging a few minutes. "I think we lost them, unless one of them has secret tracking abilities?"

Spider-Man glanced back at his companion, then down at the street, and he nodded, swinging the two of them down into an alley. The sun was starting to sink lower and lower into the sky, and it was getting darker by the minute, which both Daredevil and Spider-Man were grateful for.

As soon as they touched down, Peter collapsed to his hands and knees, trying to keep as much weight as he could off his injured leg. Daredevil hurried over to the younger hero and crouched down, examining the area around the wound wound with his fingers.

"Just….just get it out," Peter growled, crawling over to the wall and bracing himself against it.

"We don't have anything to stop the bleeding once I pull it out," Daredevil argued. "If we can't get it closed, you could lose a lot more blood than you've already lost."

"I'm a fast healer," Peter huffed. "Besides, I have a way to keep the wound closed, at least until I can get back home. My aunt has some nursing experience; she'll be able to patch me up."

The horned man hesitated another moment, unsure of what the kid meant when he said he had a way to keep himself from bleeding out, but he finally reached down and prepared to grab the piece of rebar. "Hey kid," the older vigilante said, getting the younger man's attention.

"Hmm?" Peter responded tiredly.

"I just think it's really important for you to know that you-" Before he finished, Daredevil pulled the metal out of Spider-Man's thigh. Peter let out a startled yell and grabbed at his leg, which was twitching from the pain. "You did a really good job back there," the horned vigilante finished as he tossed the metal aside. Peter didn't answer; he was too busy focusing on the wound. As the older vigilante watched, Spider-Man began webbing his wound, using the sticky substance to seal the hole and stop the bloodflow.

"That's pretty nifty," Daredevil admitted. "Won't that be kind of a pain to get off though?"

"The webbing only lasts about two hours before it dissolves," Peter explained, taking in a deep breath as he braced himself and stood up, gently testing the weight on his leg. It hurt like crazy, but as long as he didn't put his full weight on it, he could at least stand.

"Thanks for your help today," Peter said, holding out his hand to shake Daredevil's. The horned vigilante hesitated a moment, then grasped the outstretched hand and shook it.

"My pleasure," he said. As Peter turned around and prepared to swing away though, Daredevil reached out and caught the kid's arm. "Listen, Spider-Man. I don't...kid, I don't feel comfortable letting you go off alone," he finally said. "Let me at least help you get back to wherever 'home' is, and then I'll leave you alone," he promised. Peter considered the offer, then shook his head.

"Thanks, but I'm gonna have to climb up the side of the building to get inside. One person is easy to sneak in, but if people see Daredevil with Spider-Man sneaking into the building, they're gonna start to get suspicious. I promise I'll be fine," he tried convincing the other masked man.

"The sun's almost completely down, and I'm capable of climbing buildings as well," Daredevil reminded the spider. Peter sighed. He realized the vigilante wasn't going to take no for an answer, so he finally shrugged.

"Okay," he said. "Let's get going."

 _ **Let me know what you think!**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Here is chapter four! Sorry it took so long to post it, like I said earlier, it was Thanksgiving here in the States, and I spent the week with my family :) Anyway, Let me know what you think!**_

"What took you guys so long? Where's Spider-Man?" Beck asked as the Schocker, Doc Ock, and Rhino walked into the building.

"There was a slight...snag," Schultz said through ground teeth, glaring at Octavius. "We would have been here sooner, but _someone,_ " he said, throwing another dirty look at the scientist. "Needed to try and prove how much of a man he is, and let the kid go instead of keeping a tighter hold on him."

"Oh, I'm sorry that you and Rhino did _nothing_ to help get him back," Otto shot back, turning to face Schultz head-on.

"Well if you hadn't been trying to show off and intimidate the kid, we might still have him, and we could have taken care of whoever his friend was," Schultz fired.

"You let him get away?" Mysterio asked incredulously. "I can't believe you guys messed up the one part of the plan that you had to do! It wasn't even that hard! All you had to do was grab the twerp and bring him back here. Easy-peasy!"

"If it is so easy, you should have done it!" Rhino said, stepping forward as if expecting a fight.

"THERE WERE THREE OF YOU AGAINST ONE OF HIM!" Beck bellowed, lunging forward. One of Otto's arms snaked out and wrapped itself around Mysterio, lifting him into the air. Another arm had wrapped around Schultz when he moved forward to fight as well.

"We're all so glad you can do simple math, Mr. Beck," Otto sneered. "We were starting to wonder what it was you're really doing here. Besides, like we said, it wasn't just him," the scientist continued. "He had help. A man in a horned mask showed up out of nowhere and got the drop on us, which is the only reason the spider got didn't get away cleanly though," Octavius added in. "I threw him into some garbage, and before he swung away, I saw something sticking out of his leg, and you could tell he was hurt."

"Oh, so you're saying it wasn't a total disaster, because now he can go heal up before coming to find us again, with another hero at his side?" Schultz snarled from up high in the air, still struggling in Otto's grip. "This is just like the Vulture situation all over again," he muttered.

The argument would have continued, but suddenly Stane's voice broke into the conversation, stopping them in their tracks. "Gentlemen, stop arguing," he said. "Though you lost the spider, we don't need to worry about Spider-Man healing up before he comes after us again. I'd wager that he'll be here in a few hours at the most."

"What makes you so sure?" Rhino asked. He had stepped out of his metal suit and had crossed his arms over his muscular chest. Stane gestured for his group to follow him as he walked through a door, and Octavius and Rhino to follow him, while Otto carried the protesting Beck and Schultz. When Otto and Rhino walked through the door, both of them stopped in their tracks as they saw what, or who, was unconscious and tied down to a chair in the room.

"This is what makes me so sure," Stane explained smugly.

"Why didn't you tell us this was part of your plan?" Octavius growled. He didn't like being left out of the loop, and this was a pretty huge piece of the plan that Ezekiel had neglected to share.

"Because I didn't want you to drop any hints to the kid," Stane snapped. "If you guys had hinted that we had someone he loved, he would have had the upper hand on us, and the element of surprise would have been gone. As it is, you guys failed in the one task I sent you to do," he added in a disappointed tone. "But it's fine," he said, raising his voice to be heard over their angry protests. "Your mess-up might just be a blessing in disguise. Spider-Man is going to seek us out, and he's going to be angry and upset, meaning he won't be thinking clearly, so we'll have double the edge on him."

"Got any more hidden agendas lying around?" Octavius asked scathingly as he finally lowered Schultz and Beck to the floor.

"Not me," Stane said, giving a knowing look to Mysterio, who smirked as he straightened his shirt, which was rumpled after his time in Doc Ock's grasp.

"We've got a fun little game for the Spider to play," Beck explained, walking over to a cabinet and pulling out a vial of something. "Let's get things started."

 _0-0-0_

By the time Peter and Daredevil got back to Peter's apartment building, the sun was well below the horizon, and it was dark, which Peter was grateful for. It meant sneaking into the apartment would be easier than it would have been if they were trying to do it with even just a little bit of sunlight shining on them.

"Hey," Peter said, stopping Daredevil before they could start climbing. "My aunt's up there, and she freaks out kinda easily, so, uh...just… just wait in my room until I come back with the stuff we need. She's already probably going to be freaking out if she's watched the news and seen any of this, so if I suddenly show up with a masked man with horns, she's gonna freak out even more, which none of us need."

"Whatever you say, kid," Daredevil responded, reaching out and grabbing the fire escape. However, instead of climbing up the stairs like a normal human being, he simply vaulted himself from one railing to the one above it, getting a headstart on Peter. The teenager gripped the wall and began climbing, thought it was a slow process since he wasn't able to use his injured leg. He finally caught up with Daredevil on the seventh and top floor, and the teenager opened his window, crawling inside and sitting on his chair, panting from the pain and exertion. Daredevil quickly followed, and he glanced around at all the stuff Peter had in his room. When he saw all the Star Wars merchandise, as well as the stacks of textbooks on the table, he was reminded once again just how young the kid had to be.

"Okay, just wait here for a minute, I'll grab the stuff we need. I just don't want you to freak May out," Peter said, shifting the horned vigilante's attention.

"Hey, hey, hey wait," Daredevil said, gently grabbing Peter's arm. Peter rolled his eyes before turning back around, glad that he was wearing a mask and Daredevil couldn't see the gesture.

"I know, I know," Peter said, shaking his arm loose. "You think I should sit still and rest my leg, and you'll go get the stuff, but you don't know where the medical equipment is, and like I said, you'd totally freak my aunt out, and-"

"Kid, that's what I'm trying to tell you," Daredevil interrupted. "There's no one in the apartment."

Peter stumbled to a pause. "How..how can you tell that?"

"It's a-"

"Long story?" Peter finished, trying not to snap. He stared at the horned man, his eyes narrowing slightly. "May?" he called out, briefly taking his eyes off his companion. "May, you home?"

The high schooler limped over to the door, ignoring the older man's insistence that he go first. The apartment was still silent though, and Peter's stomach sank further and further with each step that he took towards the bedroom door. "May?" he asked one more time again, this time with more than a little panic in his voice. _It's fine,_ he thought to himself. _She just got caught up at work, that's all. There's no reason to panic. This is fine, great even. She's still at work, meaning she won't have to see Daredevil, and-_

Peter grasped the doorknob and twisted, and when the door opened, Peter felt the color drain from his face under his mask, and his heart stopped for several beats. The entire apartment was trashed; the table had been overturned, one of their stools had been smashed to bits, the couch was lying on its back, and random broken dishes were scattered all over the floor.

"May!" Peter yelled, moving as quickly through the apartment as he could, even though he knew he wouldn't find his aunt. He heard Daredevil come through his door behind him, but he didn't pay attention to the other hero for the moment. His aunt was missing, and he was going to find her.

"Slow down just a minute, Spider-Man," the older vigilante said as if he'd read the teenager's thoughts, but Peter didn't listen.

"Karen, call Aunt May," the high schooler instructed.

"Kid, what good is that gonna do? If she's been taken, she probably won't be able to answer it," Daredevil said, confused at what Spider-Man was hoping to achieve. Peter didn't answer; he simply held up his hand in a "wait" gesture, making Daredevil slant his mouth in frustration. Finally after thirty seconds or so, the teenager turned back to his companion.

"She didn't answer," he stated.

"I said she wouldn't," Daredevil pointed out, trying not to sound too know-it-all-ish.

"But I didn't hear it going off here," Peter added. "Did you?"

That gave the horned vigilante pause. He certainly hadn't heard it going off, and he hadn't heard it vibrating either. "No," he admitted.

"That means she's got it with her," Peter said excitedly.

"Woah, you don't know that," Daredevil said, reaching out to stop the kid from running out the front door. "They could have dropped it outside for all we know."

Daredevil's statement gave Peter pause, and he considered the other man's point for a moment.

"You're right," he admitted. "We need to find out where her phone is." He pulled out his phone and was about to hit Ned's number, but before he could, Daredevil's voice cut in sharply again.

"Kid, you're not gonna be any sort of help to your aunt if you collapse from blood loss or get sick because of infection. That webbing is already dissolving," he added, pointing towards Peter's thigh. When the teenager looked down, he saw that the horned hero was right; the webbing was dissolving, and what was left of the white substance was quickly turning red with every passing second. "Unless you let me take care of that wound, you're not going to be able to help anyone." Daredevil snapped. The teenager finally looked back up at Daredevil, and though the teenager still had his mask on, the older man could see that the kid was finally giving in.

The high schooler grabbed one of their barstools that was still intact and sat dejectedly on it while Daredevil gathered the appropriate materials to clean and dress Peter's wound. While the wound was being taken care of, Peter finally called his friend. After only a ring and a half, Ned answered the phone, sounding frantic.

"Dude, are you okay? Where are you? When those three guys left the school, we tried watching where they went, but once you went into the football stands you never came out! We thought Spider-Man was dead!"

"Ned," Peter interrupted tiredly, watching as Daredevil walked back towards him with rubbing alcohol, bandages, and stuff to close the wound with. "Listen, I need you to do me a favor. You remember when you traced my phone back when the Vulture was around?"

"Yeah, that was awesome," Ned confirmed; Peter could almost see his friend smiling at the memory.

"Remember how Mr. Stark told you to get rid of the programs you used to do that?"

"...yes…" Ned confirmed, extremely hesitant.

"Please tell me you kept them?"

"I don't...of course I didn't...I don't want Mr. Stark to get mad at me..." Ned replied.

"You're not gonna get in trouble," Peter promised. "I won't tell Mr. Stark you disobeyed a direct order. I need you to track Aunt May's phone."

"May? Why her phone?"

"I don't think the three guys at the school were the only ones in their group, and I think they took her," Peter explained.

"Wait, what?" Ned exclaimed.

"Ned, I really just need to know where her phone says she's at right now," Peter repeated, trying not to sound to frustrated with his friend.

"Okay, hold on...it's pulling up right now," Ned assured his friend. After a few more moments, Ned finally continued, "Okay...it looks like her phone puts her at an old lot near 2nd and 17th. I'm pulling up a map of the area...it looks like that's the only building on that lot, and there's not much around it in the way of traffic."

"Awesome, thanks Ned. I'll call you if I need anything else!" Peter ended the call; he felt slightly guilty for cutting Ned off so abruptly, but he knew he needed to get going to save May. He got ready to stand up, but almost immediately leaned back in his chair with a hiss of pain as Daredevil began stitching his wound closed. He'd completely forgotten about his leg injury in his zeal to find his aunt, but now that he was thinking about it, the pain registered with his brain again full force, and he groaned. When he'd first been injured, it had been a sharp, shooting pain that made it hard to focus; now though, it had diminished to just a throbbing pain, and while it sucked, Peter was just glad that the sharp pulses of pain had died down.

"Sit still," Daredevil said with exaggerated annoyance, though Peter could tell the man didn't mean his tone...at least, not entirely.

The next several minutes passed by agonizingly slowly, and Peter couldn't watch as the older man finished sewing up his punctured leg.

After what seemed like hours, but was only a few minutes, Daredevil finally cut the thread and stood up, disposing of the bloody cotton balls and gauze pads as Peter stood up and experimentally put weight on his leg. Stitching it up hadn't suddenly cured the pain when he put weight on his leg, but he knew he had to push past the pain and discomfort he was feeling.

"Hey man, I just wanted to say thanks for your help," Peter said as he began limping towards his bedroom, intending on swinging out the window.

"You're welcome, but why does that feel like a goodbye?" the horned vigilante asked suspiciously, moving towards Peter in a non-threatening way, preparing to stop him if he needed to.

"You can't come with me," the teenager replied as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

"Oh can't I?"

"No. You've helped enough, and I mean that in the most sincere way possible, but this isn't your fight. You don't have any reason to come with me."

"Besides the fact that you're going up against at least three villains, each with crazy abilities that you couldn't fight off on your own in your condition? That's another thing," he added. "You're exhausted, and you're wounded." Peter opened his mouth to argue, but Daredevil held up his hand. "Don't fight me on this, kid. I'm coming with you."

"No, you're not," Peter stated emphatically. He raised his hands, preparing to web Daredevil to the wall if he needed to. In response to that threat, Daredevil raised his batons.

"We don't have to fight," the older man said, though he didn't lower his batons.

"I can't let someone else get hurt because of me," Spider-Man finally said, his voice cracking slightly.

"I'm a big boy; I can take care of myself. Look kid, there's no way you're going to win this argument. You have no logical points that would make me back down."

"I don't need logic. I just need to beat you in a fight."

Daredevil raised his eyebrows, though Peter couldn't see the gesture under the mask. "You really think you can do that too? It looks like you can barely stand up," he remarked drily. The two heroes stared at each other. Each was unwilling to budge, each unwilling to lose the fight.

 _ **Thoughts?**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5! Just as a warning, I may be AWOL for a few more days. I've got this crazy big project that I have to work on, so it's eating up all of my time. I'll be back as soon as possible though, hopefully just a few more days.**_

 _ **I don't own Marvel or anything to do with them, THOUGH I SAW THE INFINITY WAR TRAILER TODAY AND I'M FREAKING OUT A LITTLE BIT SO THERE'S THAT.**_

Peter crept along the top of the roof and peered down towards the entrance. He didn't want to walk in the front door, but Ned had emailed him a pirated copy of the blueprint to the building, and Peter had noticed that there was also a back entrance, as well as an entrance from the roof. He didn't know where the villains were at in the building, but he knew the best and fastest way to find that out would be to go inside. The teenager straightened up and made his way to the back of the building as quickly, but also as quietly as he could without aggravating his leg.

Once he reached the end of the roof near the back, Peter jumped off, quickly turning and firing a web at the top of the building as he fell through the air. The web strand tightened as he fell, and Peter was able to gently lower himself the last few feet to the ground. Once he had his footing, he snuck over to the back door, grateful for the cover of darkness, though the street lamps around did sort of ruin his cover a little bit. Still, he stuck to the shadows as best he could, and when he finally reached the back door, he reached out and grasped the knob gently. He turned it quietly, but was met with resistance; the door was locked.

"Karen," he muttered quietly. "Ice webs." He fired the sticky substance out of his web shooters and stuck them to the doorknob. There wasn't a very visible change in the webs, but soon the doorknob was cold to the touch and covered in frost, and Peter was able to use his super strength to break it off without as much commotion as he would have if the knob hadn't been frozen. He quietly pushed the door open and snuck inside.

It was pitch-black inside, and the teenager once again quietly whispered, "Karen?" His AI seemed to sense his thoughts, because immediately, the world was lit up green as Karen activated the suit's night vision, and Peter began making his way through the building. "Karen, activate enhanced reconnaissance mode," Peter whispered. Not much changed visually, and there weren't any noises indicating someone close by, but even so Peter stuck to the shadows and moved quietly.

Finally after a minute or so of walking through the building, red and yellow images began to appear on Peter's HUD. They were faint at first, but the closer he walked, the stronger the colors became until finally he knew that he was only a few dozen yards away. Suddenly Peter saw something appear from off to his right, and his senses began going off, alerting him to duck out of the way just in time to avoid being clobbered in the head by Doc Ock's long metallic arm. The high schooler ducked into a roll and popped up on the opposite side of the doctor, glad to know that he had the advantage of his night vision-

He had just finished that thought when lights were suddenly flipped on, blinding Peter slightly as his eyes tried to adjust to the normal light instead of the green hue of the night vision. Instinctively, the teenager's hands flew up to cover his eyes against the harsh yellow light, and in doing so, he opened himself up to fall prey to the scientist. An arm wrapped around Peter's torso and yanked the kid up into the air, and he let out a surprised yelp. Finally, his eyes readjusted to the normal light, and he squinted his eyes at the octopus.

"So nice of you to finally join us," the doctor sneered.

"Where is she?" Peter growled, barely struggling in the grip of Octavius. Without answering, the scientist turned and walked in the direction of where Peter had seen the heat signatures. A large door was in front of them, and one of Otto's limbs snuck out and grabbed it, pulling it open while almost pulling it off its hinges as well. Otto strode through the door with Peter trailing above him, conking the high schooler in the head against the door frame. Peter blacked out momentarily, and when he came back around he saw two chairs with people seated in them, their backs to him. He also saw Shocker, Rhino, and Quentin Beck.

"Mysterio," Peter drawled. "I should have guessed you were part of this."

"Welcome to the party, Spider-Man!" Beck greeted, throwing his hands out in a dramatic gesture.

"Thanks, but uh, is there any chance I could get my party favors to go?" Peter asked.

"No can do, arachnid," Beck said with a shrug. "I want you to be able to see this wonderful plan we have play out."

"I'm tired of this," Peter said. "Where's the guy in charge?"

"What makes you think it's not me? This could all be my genius plan to get revenge on you."

"Or maybe you're working for someone else because you're too dumb to come up with this plan on your own," Peter quipped. There were snickers from the rest of the gang, while Beck stood in sullen silence. Suddenly someone began clapping, and out of the shadows, a figure stepped forward. Peter felt his blood run a little more cold at the sight of the man he now knew was the mastermind behind the plot.

"Stane."

"Hello, Spider-Man," Stane greeted with a sinister smile. "I have to say, I expected much more from you. I guess your love for your aunt made you not nearly as cautious as you should have been. I overestimated you."

"Just let her go, Stane," Peter growled. "You've got me; she doesn't have any part of this."

"What, no witty banter? No snarky comments?" Stane asked condescendingly. "I'm disappointed, Peter."

"You took the person I care the most about," Peter growled. "I'm not really in a gaming mood. Let May go."

" _Person,_ huh?" Stane asked with a knowing glint in his eye. Peter felt uneasy at the man's emphasis on the word. "You sure there isn't anyone else in the world that you care about as much as dear Aunt May?"

"What...what are you talking about?" Peter asked cautiously, barely even noticing that Ock's metal arm was lowering him to the ground, though the limb stayed wrapped around the teenager's torso when Peter's feet touched the floor.

"Why don't you come see?" Zeke offered with a coy smile. Octavius began walking forward, and his arm encouraged Peter to move as well. The teenager stumbled along until they rounded the front of the two chairs sitting in the middle of the room, and when he saw who else was sitting in the chairs, his heart stopped beating for a moment. May was in one chair, her head lolled to one side, though the teenager could see her chest rising and falling. However, in the second chair sat someone with a familiar mess of dark hair, a familiar goatee, and a fashionable suit.

"Mr. Stark?" Peter asked, instinctively trying to walk forward towards the two hostages, though he was stopped by Octavius. "What did you do to them?" Peter asked worriedly as he took in his aunt's and his mentor's physical states. Both of them had pale faces, and while Stark seemed to be completely unconscious, May's head began bobbing up and down, and Peter realized she was still awake.

"May?" he asked, trying to get her attention as he strained against the hold Octavius had on him. His aunt groaned and struggled to open her eyes, and Peter glared back at Octavius, his lenses narrowing ominously. "Let me go," he ordered, sticking a web to the metal and turning on the taser web setting. While the tentacle was wrapped around his chest and Peter did receive the shock from the metal, it also caused Doc Ock to shout in pain and release the teenager, and Peter immediately ran forward to his aunt and the billionaire, ignoring the shouts of Octavius, as well as the pain in his chest and the black spots dancing in front of his eyes from the taser web.

Peter felt his senses telling him to get out of the way, but he ignored those feelings, and he thought he heard Stane tell Otto to let him go and see how things play out. Peter ignored them both and knelt down in front of his aunt.

"May?" he asked again as he reached her, gently grabbing her head and straightening it, feeling her pulse while he did. It was erratic and weak, which made Peter nervous, but he forgot about the pulse momentarily when May groaned and her eyes flicked up to her nephew.

"P...Pe-?"

"Shh, it's okay May," Peter said, cutting her off before she could say his name. He knew Stane knew who he was, but when he'd been caught by Shocker, Octavius, and Rhino earlier, they'd talked about finding out who he was, and Peter figured that Stane was holding his identity over the group as leverage to get them to cooperate. "May? May, listen to me," he requested, trying to draw his aunt's attention. "I'm gonna get you outta here."

She didn't answer, though Peter wasn't expecting her to. He stayed with her a moment longer, and then, though he hated to do it, Peter left his aunt momentarily to check on Tony. Like he'd observed earlier, the billionaire was unconscious, and his face was pale and clammy. Small drops of sweat were beading along his hairline. Peter turned angry eyes on Stane and the other four villains.

"What did you do to them?" he asked through ground teeth.

"Just a small invention of mine," Beck bragged, stepping into the center of the room dramatically while he pulled something from his pocket. It was a small, empty vial that he shook slightly, making sure Spider-Man was paying attention to it. "One of my usual concoctions, but there's a fun little twist I added to it," he informed Peter. "A neurotoxin that adds even more hallucinations and pain before finally causing either brain death or a heart attack."

Peter looked down at his aunt and mentor with horror and fear on his face, grateful that his mask hid his expression. However, Mysterio wasn't done being his regular showman self. "Don't worry, Spider-Man," he said. "There is an antidote." He held up another small vial to emphasize his words.

As soon as he saw the vial, Peter dove towards Beck, trying to get to the antidote. His hands were outstretched as he prepared to grab the vial, but before he could even move two feet, something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He was too late to heed his sense's warnings to get out of the way as a thick metal arm that once again wrapped around his chest and pulled him back, and then another arm wrapped around his wrists and pinned them together as well. Once the teenager's hands were restrained, the metal around his chest loosened, and he was lifted off the floor, dangling by his wrists. His feet were at least a foot or more off the floor, and he tried kicking them to get momentum to get away as the villains surrounding him laughed.

"There is one small catch though," Beck continued as he examined the antidote victoriously. Peter was too busy struggling to get his hands free to come up with a response, but Mysterio didn't seem to care. He just kept on talking, and when the words entered Peter's ears, he stopped struggling out of shock. "There's only enough antidote for one of your loved ones. Who are you going to save, Spider-Man?"

Peter dangled in shock for a moment before turning to Stane, trying to give himself time to come up with a way to save both of the people he loved. "Why even play this game, Stane?" Spider-Man asked as he continued to try and pull himself free of Otto's grip. "If you wanted us dead, you could have just killed me and Stark; there was no need to involve anyone else in this!"

"First of all, your aunt had it coming," Stane said venomously, unconsciously rubbing the back of his head where Peter remembered May had clobbered him with an IV pole. "Second, there's no fun in just outright killing you all. Besides, this plan is so juicy. Whichever way you choose, whomever you choose to save, I win. Either you save your aunt and Stark dies, giving me my revenge on him and leaving you feeling guilty for the rest of your life, or you save your mentor and father figure and let your aunt die, which would also eat you up on the inside. Then you would be distraught, and Stark would blame himself for your grief, which I would also take as a win."

Stane sneered as he looked at Spider-Man, who was still dangling in Otto's claws, glancing around in what Stane assumed was panic. He began to feel a gloating brag coming on, but then Spider-Man stopped struggling and locked eyes with Stane.

"You forgot one thing though," Peter said, his tone deathly calm.

"And what's that?" Stane said, sure he'd thought of everything, though Spider-Man's tone and statement made him feel slightly uneasy.

"I also know how to work well with others."

Stane was a little confused about Peter's proclamation, but before he could say anything, there was a loud creaking from above, and suddenly it was as if the roof was crashing down on them. Zeke tried to get out of the way, but he wasn't fast enough to avoid all the debris, and he was knocked to the ground. A bigger object fell to the ground, and the villains realized that it was a person, not a large piece of roof. Daredevil stood up from where he'd landed and faced the men holding Peter and his loved ones captive. Everyone stared at the newcomer in shock, until finally he smirked and spoke. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear."

 _ **Let me know what you think of the chapter, and let me know your thoughts about the new Avengers trailer!**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Sorry for the wait! But hopefully the length of this chapter makes up for it, because it's the longest chapter in the story! My sould is still being sucked away by my school project, but it's due this Friday at Midnight, so it will all be done by then, and then I can get back to my normal posting schedule!**_

 _ **I own nothing to do with Marvel, I just enjoy taking the characters out for a little spin :)**_

There was a moment where no one moved, and it reminded Peter of the atmosphere at the school when Octavius and the others had first shown up. Deciding to take advantage of the moment of stunned silence, Peter used all the strength he had and was able to yank his wrists out of Doc Ock's grasp; he fell to the ground, landing in a crouch before immediately taking off for Mysterio and his antidote.

As soon as Spider-Man slipped Otto's grasp, the stunned spell was broken and all the villains rushed around, trying to contain the situation. Beck saw Spider-Man coming for him and instead of facing him head-on, the illusionist turned and ran as fast as he could into the shadows, hoping to outsmart the arachnid hero. While Peter went after Beck, Daredevil faced off with two of the remaining villains, Shocker and Doctor Octopus. Stane and the Rhino stood back for a moment, watching the ensuing fights.

Octavius and Shocker began circling Daredevil, who was tilting his head, almost as if he were listening to their movements. Deciding the time for waiting was over, Doc Ock lashed out with one of his metal limbs, positive that he was going to make quick work of the horned man, but almost faster than one could believe, Daredevil jumped out of the way, twisting into a roll as he landed on the floor.

Deciding to go on the offensive instead of the defensive to try and get a drop on the men coming after him, Daredevil leapt to his feet and immediately threw his batons at the man with the glowing armband, knowing his weapons would have more of an effect on that man instead of the grotesque six-armed person coming after him. Shocker was able to bat the first baton away, but Daredevil simply pulled it back towards himself and threw it again, this time connecting solidly with Shocker's head, and the bad guy dropped to the ground. Daredevil didn't even have to check on the man in order to tell that he was unconscious, which only left a few more people to deal with.

As Daredevil faced down Otto Octavius, he strained his ears even more than he normally did, which was a lot. The four metal arms were difficult to follow since they didn't actually have a heat signature, so he had to focus his hearing on listening for when they moved through the air. The horned vigilante familiarized himself with the sound as much as he could in the short time that he and the scientist circled each other, and then Daredevil went on the attack as he tried to take his opponent by surprise. However, it seemed that Octavius had suspected the vigilante would do as much, and he quickly lifted himself out of the way, swatting at the smaller man with one of his free arms. Daredevil jumped out of the way of one of the arms, but he wasn't able to avoid the second one, and he was batted out of the air. The red-clad figure flew through the air before crashing into the wall. He got to his feet with a groan, but he held his batons at the ready, this time waiting for the scientist to make his move.

As the horned vigilante waited, Octavius began moving his arms around, and Daredevil suddenly had an idea; the scientist's metal arms were stronger than anything he'd ever fought, but he could sense that besides the mechanical bits, Octavius was just a regular man; one with what seemed to be a pitifully weak physical body. He remembered what Peter had said about the man having a chip in his head that controlled the arms, and he figured that if he could just get close enough to the doctor himself, he might have a better chance of disrupting the chip than he would from further away. He knew that he would have mere seconds, if that, before the metal arms would catch him and throw him away, so he prepared himself for the quick rebuttal and flung himself at...nothing.

He jumped into the air, but nothing was there when he came down. The horned man looked around, trying to sense the scientist's form, and he finally found it, retreating away towards where Spider-Man and Mysterio had run off to. He was about to run after the six-armed man to keep him distracted from Spider-Man, but suddenly a loud roar sounded off to his left and he had to duck out of the way as the metal Rhino man came at him, swinging his fists.

 _0-0-0_

Peter ran after Beck, quickly closing the distance between them despite his injured leg, and he finally jumped, grabbing ahold of the man's shoulders and bringing them both tumbling to the ground. The world seemed to slow down as Peter watched as the vial holding the antidote fell towards the floor; shaking himself out of his daze, the hero quickly fired a web at the floor where it was about to land, cushioning the landing and preventing it from breaking. He let out a brief sigh of relief, but it soon turned to a grunt as Mysterio grabbed him by the shoulders and flipped him onto his back. Beck was above him, and as soon as Spider-Man's masked face was facing him, the bad guy raised a canister and sprayed something into Peter's face. The contents of the canister permeated Peter's mask, and the teenager began coughing; he thought the coughing spell would only last a few moments, enough to distract him, but soon the coughs turned to gags, and he clutched at his throat. He couldn't breathe!

Peter pushed Mysterio off himself rather easily; it was almost like Beck wasn't putting up a fight anymore now that his foe was incapacitated. The world spun around him as Peter staggered to his hands and knees, crawling over to the vial on the floor. He was barely out of reach when he collapsed, his arms unable to hold him up anymore due to the lack of oxygen and the pain in his head.

"Karen?" he choked out, wondering if the suit had anything to help him. "I can't breathe!"

"You've been exposed to a nerve gas," she answered. "I can give you a short supply of oxygen, but if you don't get the antidote within a few hours, the effects of this gas are fatal."

Peter thought the AI should have sounded a little less calm about his impending demise, but he pushed those feelings aside. "Do what you can," he ordered.

"Just a moment," she replied, her ever-calm voice not doing much to calm Peter at the moment. Soon though, he heard little puffs, and felt the cool oxygen coming from somewhere in his mask and entering his nose and mouth. He still felt weak and shaky, but he was able to concentrate a little bit better now. A small number appeared on his HUD, counting down from thirty minutes. He took that meaning that he had a thirty minute supply of oxygen, though he had absolutely no idea where the secret supply was being kept. He was about to push himself to his feet and grab the antidote when he heard Beck standing over him again.

"So weak," the man said in disappointment. "I don't know how you were able to take me down so easily the first time, but now everyone will know that Mysterio is the name to fear!"

Peter didn't reply. Mysterio obviously though that he was still incapacitated, and the wall crawler decided to use that to his advantage. He pretended to try and crawl away, reaching his hand out weakly for the vial, and to his relief, Mysterio didn't try to stop him. The man obviously thought he was too weak to do any real hero stuff, which was his mistake. While the man continued to gloat, Peter suddenly whirled around and fired a web grenade right at at man's chest; when it exploded, it forced the man back into the wall, where he was firmly stuck with the white substance.

Peter was still slightly dizzy from the nerve gas Mysterio had sprayed him with, but he pushed past it and hurried over to the two people tied in the chairs. May was now more awake than she had been before, and Mr. Stark was beginning to stir as well.

"Peter?" May asked quietly, looking around her in confusion. "What's going on?"

"Shh, May," Peter said, hurrying over to her. He glanced down at the small vial in his hands, torn up on the inside. The vial was tiny, and the teenager didn't doubt that there was only enough of the antidote for one of the victims. Peter felt like tearing his hair out. He knew ultimately who he was going to save, but he just couldn't let the other person die.

"That's it," a quiet, snide voice said from behind him as Peter stared at the two people in the chairs. Peter knew it was Stane without turning around, so he kept facing his loved ones. He kept looking at the vial and then between the two hostages. "Which one are you going to save, Peter? Your only family, or the mentor who changed your life? Would you deprive the world of an Avenger just for your own selfish needs to have your aunt at your side constantly? Or are you going to sacrifice the woman who raised you for the sake of the man who made you the suit of your dreams, the man who has been training you? Tick, tick, tick, Peter. Your time to choose is running out."

"Shut up," Peter growled, putting his head in his hands. The high schooler took another look at the most important people in his life, and suddenly noticed something. Mr. Stark had a red stain on the side of his shirt that was slowly growing bigger as time passed, and another bit of revelation hit Peter. He remembered back to when he'd been grabbed by Octavius and the others from the school, and how they'd mentioned that Chameleon was part of the crew. Peter hadn't seen hide nor hair of the shapeshifter during the entire time he'd been here, and he looked at the man whom he thought was his mentor, suddenly realizing that while the man was naturally pale, he didn't have the same symptoms that his aunt had.

"That's not Tony Stark," Peter realized quietly, his eyes widening under the mask.

"What was that?" Stane asked, not sure if he'd heard Peter correctly. Zeke's heart rate picked up, and he took a step forward, preparing to grab the kid if he needed.

"That's not Tony Stark," Peter repeated louder, hurrying forward towards his aunt as quickly as he could. He was a mere few inches away from her when his spidey senses went wild, and he was forced to jump out of the way of Stane's attack. Peter's injured leg screamed in protest as he accidentally hit his leg on the fake Tony Stark's chair, and he stumbled to the floor. He tried lunging for his aunt's chair again, thinking he was faster than Stane, which he was. The thing he wasn't faster than was Otto Octavius' mechanical arms; the scientist had appeared out of nowhere, and one of his arms slammed down in front of the teenager, making Peter stumble back to avoid being crushed. As he fell backwards, there was a pull on his thigh, and he suddenly felt something warm begin to drip down his leg; he realized he'd pulled at least some of the stitches out of his wound, and it was beginning to bleed again. Trying to avoid putting pressure on his leg as much as possible, the teenager backed away in a three-legged crab walk, trying to keep all the villains in his sight. He had no idea where Octavius had come from, but he wondered what had happened to Daredevil if he was no longer fighting the six-armed man.

Knowing his leg was too weak to really help him move fast enough to get to his aunt before he would be crushed by one of Otto's arms, Peter did the one thing he could think of that would buy him time. He looked towards the advancing Otto and Zeke, then fired a web at the ceiling and pulled himself out of their reach.

"Coward!" Octavius snarled, trying to peer into the dark and find the web head. However, the lights were still out, and none of the bad guys had night vision. Otto's arms were twitching, waiting for the command to reach up and grab something, but currently there was nothing for them to snag.

Peter hung upside-down, quickly webbing his wound again to stop the blood from escaping; he'd have to re-stitch it when he got himself, May, and Daredevil out, but until then, his webbing was going to have to do the trick.

As he hung there, Peter suddenly had an idea. He wasn't able to get close enough to his aunt to get her the antidote she needed, but the one thing Stane couldn't control was his ability to aim. He quickly grabbed a spare web cartridge from the where he kept his extras, and he pried the lid off. The web fluid was hard to get out, but Peter finally succeeded in getting most of it out, and he quickly poured the contents of the antidote vial into the now-empty web fluid vial.

"What are you doing up there, Spider-Man?" Stane taunted, though he sounded frustrated. Peter was up high enough that no one could reach him except for Otto's extra limbs, and he had placed himself in a dark corner of the room so it was more difficult to see him. Moving quickly, and seeing that he only had fifteen minutes left in his oxygen supply, Peter ejected the current web cartridge and replaced it with the cartridge now containing the antidote. He quietly crawled as far forward as he could while still staying in the shadows.

Peter leveled his arm towards his aunt, but he hesitated. He knew he only had one shot at getting his aunt the cure, and while his aim was good, the stakes were too high to do it free-hand. "Karen, a little help?" he asked. Without responding, Peter suddenly had a line of trajectory appear on his HUD, and he was able to adjust his aim as necessary. Before he could fire, he heard a grunt off to his left, and he looked over to see Daredevil once again flying through the air, having been unable to avoid the attack of Rhino for forever. While keeping his one hand trained on his aunt, Peter brought and crossed his other arm underneath his first arm, firing a web grenade at the Rhino to trying to give his partner any sort of advantage he could. He heard a surprised grunt as his webs made contact, though Peter didn't look to see where he'd hit the Russian; he knew Daredevil could take care of himself.

The high schooler turned his attention back to the trajectory line on his HUD, having to readjust his aim again slightly. He took in a deep breath, steadying his hand and arm, pushing the pain in his leg to the back of his mind. He couldn't have anything distracting him as he took his shot. Remembering the words of one of his trainers with Mr. Stark, he took in another deep breath, and then as he let the air out of his lungs, he fired the antidote, watching with trepidation as the liquid soared through the air. The high schooler watched in triumph as the antidote hit his aunt in the face. Her eyes squinted as it hit her, and she shook her head slightly, causing the droplets to drip down into her open mouth. Peter didn't know how much she needed to completely cure her, but he hoped that the amount he'd been able to get into her system was at least enough to keep her alive until he could get her proper medical care.

His triumph was cut short though as his spidey alarms began ringing, and he realized that when he'd fired the antidote he'd given away his position, and Octavius' arms were reaching up to grab him. Peter lunged off the ceiling to try and get away, but he felt something grab his ankle, and suddenly he was flying through the air.

He fell towards the floor and curled into a roll, executing the move perfectly so that he was able to jump back up into an upright position. As he straightened, he briefly wondered what his plan should be. Should he go after his aunt and try to get her to a safer place than here, or should he focus on getting the remaining bad guys?

His question was almost immediately answered when he heard a bellow come from behind him. "Spider-Man!" Octavius yelled, much closer than Peter was thinking he was. The teenager turned and tried to jump out of the way of Otto's attack, and while he managed to avoid getting his head bashed in, he wasn't able to avoid the shapr piece of metal Octavius had ripped out of the ground. A fiery, jagged pain ripped across his chest, and when Peter looked down, he saw the chest of his suit had three large tears in it, and the skin underneath was beginning to well with blood. Peter stared in shock for a moment at the injuries on his chest. _Mr. Stark is gonna be so mad I ruined the suit,_ Peter thought to himself. He felt almost physically sick, though he wasn't sure if that was because of his injuries, or the ripped multi-million dollar Spider-Man suit.

While the teenager was distracted, Octavius took the opportunity to grab the spider, and Peter was lifted up by the ankle once more. Peter tried struggling out of Otto's grasp, but the wounds on his chest begged him to stop moving. Peter dangled upside-down until he was finally staring into the leering face of Otto Octavius. When the high schooler looked around, he saw Stane over by the chairs, cutting Chameleon from his bindings, as well as letting Beck loose from his web prison. Suddenly Peter felt himself rising higher in the air, and he looked back at Octavius. The scientist was using two of his robotic limbs to lift the two of them up into the rafters, out of sight of the others.

"Alright, Spider-Man," Octavius said pleasantly. "I think it's finally time I find out just who is under that mask."

Octavius reached forward with his hands towards Peter's face, but the teenager batted him away, writhing as he tried to get free of the man's grip, trying to ignore the pain in his chest. Octavius growled, but he knew he should have expected the wall-crawler to resist, so he brought his last mechanical arm up and used the claw to grab Spider-Man's arms, clamping them together so that the annoying hero wouldn't be able to stop him from finding out what he wanted to know.

With his hands restrained, Peter could do nothing but try and wiggle away from Octavius as much as he could as the scientist brought himself closer and closer to the teenager, his human hands now reaching for the mask.

"No," Peter muttered as Otto's fingers grasped the fabric and began pulling. The scientist pulled slowly, as if he were enjoying watching the torture he was putting the young hero through, which he definitely was. Peter tried a few more futile times to get himself out of the grip of the metal claws, but it was no use. Finally, Peter's mask was pulled off his face, and he was suddenly face-to-face with Dr. Otto Octavius, who grinned triumphantly.

"At last," he muttered as he peered closer. "The face of my enemy is reveal-wait," he said as he suddenly realized that Peter wasn't what he was expecting. "You're...you're just a kid? How…?"

Peter didn't bother responding. He was too busy trying to figure out a way to hide his face. He knew that he was up in the shadows of the rafters for the time being, but he also knew it would only be a matter of time before Octavius decided to take them both back to the ground and reveal Peter's secret identity to the rest of the men below, besides Stane, who already knew who he was.

"Octavius?" came Stane's sharp call from below. "What are you doing up there?"

"What I should have done from the very beginning," the scientist called back, flashing Peter a slow grin. "This could be fun," he admitted only to Peter. "Once I find out who you are, there's nothing that won't stop me from ruining everything in your life. What do you say we start by talking to that lovely lady down below. Who is she? Mother? Aunt? Sister? I wonder how much we'll have to pry and...interrogate her before she gives up your name."

Peter began shaking in rage at the thought of any of the men below touching his aunt again, and he strained harder than he'd ever done before against the claws holding him, and to both his and Otto's surprise, the clamps budged slightly. Taking advantage of the scientist's shock, Peter yanked again, this time managing to get one of his hands free. He used that hand to fire a web directly into Otto's face, activating the taser web while Doc Ock was busy trying to wipe the sticky stuff off his face.

Octavius tensed up and groaned as the currents of electricity ran through his body, and it was only after the man went limp that Peter turned off the taser. The high schooler watched as his mask fell from Otto's hands and fluttered to the floor. He prepared to fire a web to grab it, but the arms holding himself and the scientist up suddenly began to collapse, and Peter's web went askew. As Doc Ock and Peter collapsed from up so high, the claw holding Spider-Man's ankle finally released him, though it didn't do him much good as he fell.

"Gliders!" the teenager called out as he fell, hoping that the suit would still respond to him even with his mask removed. Thankfully it did, and Peter's fall was slowed down somewhat as the draft caught the webbed material of his suit's gliders. The fall to the floor was still hard, and it jarred the young man's injured thigh, but it wasn't as bone-crushing as he was expecting.

When Peter pushed himself to his feet, he was faced with a blood-chilling sight. The good thing was that Peter could see color returning to his aunt's face, and he realized the antidote was working. The bad part was that it didn't matter if the antidote cured her, because Ezekiel Stane was currently holding her upright with a knife to her neck.

"Good to see you, Peter," Stane said pleasantly. Peter looked around for Chameleon and Mysterio, but he couldn't find them. "If you're wondering where the others are, I had Beck take Chameleon to the back to finally patch up the bullet wound. And it seems that our friends Octavius and Schultz are still off in la-la land, while Rhino and Daredevil are still entangled with each other. It's just you and me for now. Well, you, me, and your aunt," he amended.

"Stane," Peter said, his voice quaking thanks to the mix of pain and rage he was feeling. "Let. Her. Go."

"'Fraid I can't do that, Peter. Aunty May here is just gonna have to sit back and enjoy the ride. See, you can't get to me without going through her first, and I know that that's not something you're gonna do."

Peter hesitated. He had a shot to fire another taser web at the man holding his aunt, but it wasn't clear, and he didn't want to risk hitting May. He decided to try and stall, and he looked around for his mask. He finally spotted it underneath Octavius' torso, but when he moved to grab it, he heard a small intake of breath from May, as well as Stane's warning. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, Peter."

The teenager looked up and saw Stane pressing the knife further into May's neck, going so far as to drawing small droplets of blood. Peter's vision immediately turned red again, and though he wanted to lunge at the man holding his aunt, he knew he needed to bide his time and wait, otherwise Stane wouldn't hesitate to kill her. With that in mind, Peter backed away from his mask, holding his hands up peacefully.

"Good boy," Stane praised condescendingly. "I did promise everyone that they could find out who you were, and though Doc Ock took a sneak peek, I'm going to hold up my end of the bargain to the rest of the team."

That gave Peter an idea. "You think they trust you?" he asked with a small laugh, moving forward so slowly he almost didn't even realize it. "I've heard at least the three that you sent to grab me talking about how they don't trust you, and that they think you're going to get rid of them now that you've got me."

"That's ridiculous," Zeke scoffed.

"I'm not saying it's not," Peter said, though he actually agreed with the rest of the men; he wouldn't trust Stane further than a regular human could throw Stane. "I'm just saying what I heard. But think: if they don't trust you, can you really trust them? What's to say they aren't back there plotting some way of getting back at you right now?"

"You're trying to turn me against my team," Stane replied. "I applaud your effort, but it's just not working, Peter. I'm not one of those insecure villains you've dealt with in the past who can't deal with the thought of his crew not liking him. I understand that my crew probably doesn't like me, or even trust me all that much, but there's enough trust between us that I know I can trust them to get the job done. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. You insult one of us, you insult all of us."

"Well, that's convenient," Peter quipped, still moving forward slowly, getting closer and closer to Stane, who seemed unaware of the high schooler's movements. There was a loud _thunk_ and then a cry from behind them, and it distracted Stane enough that Peter was able to lunge the rest of the way forward and knock the knife away from his aunt's neck. Stane stumbled backwards, completely letting go of May, who began to collapse to the ground. Peter lunged forward and was able to catch his aunt before her head hit the floor. While Stane was still recovering from Spider-Man ramming into the two of them, Peter fired a web at the ceiling, wrapping the other end of the web to his aunt. When he released her, the bungee web bounced back, pulling her into the air and out of reach of everyone except Otto Octavius, who was still unconscious on the ground.

Peter's senses alerted him to jump up, which he did, narrowly avoiding the pole Zeke had swung at his legs, hoping to knock the arachnid teenager down. However, Peter was faster than the normal, un-superpowered Stane, and the high schooler quickly webbed the pole, yanking it away from Stane before he could have another go. Peter turned and fired another web at Stane, trying to catch the man while his guard was down, but Stane was faster than Peter was expecting. He dodged out of the way and ducked behind a part of the wall, out of sight of Peter.

Peter knew he had to get Stane, but he did take a minute to glance over at Octavius, where he could see his mask poking out from under the man's torso. He had a moment of hesitation as he tried to figure out what to do, and in that moment that Peter took his gaze away from Stane, the man did something crazy. Stane pulled a small remote out of his pocket and pressed a button, alerting Peter's senses. The teenager turned and looked at Stane with wide eyes, desperately hoping that what he thought the remote was for wasn't actually what it was for.

Stane sneered as he took in the panic on Peter's face as the high schooler looked around. "This is for my father!"

"Kid!" Daredevil yelled, grabbing Peter's attention as he ran towards them. Peter wondered for a minute where Daredevil's Russian horned friend was, though he figured the muscular man was more than likely unconscious in the back of the building where the two of them had been fighting. The high schooler completely forgot about the Rhino at Daredevil's next words though. "There's a bomb in here with less than two minutes on the clock; we gotta go!"

Peter's heart race picked up, and he looked over at Zeke, who was grinning evilly back at him. Torn between the choices before him, Peter finally ground his teeth together in frustration before he jumped almost straight up into the air where he'd left May hanging. He pulled the web away from her, ripping her shirt slightly in the process, though that was the least of their concerns at the moment. After lowering the two of them to the floor, Peter slung his aunt's arm around his shoulders and began limping out with her. When they passed an unconscious Octavius, Peter fired a web and snagged his mask, though he didn't have time to put it on, so he simply gripped it in his free hand as he and May continued to move forward. Peter thought he heard a sound like Otto was shifting or moving, but the teenager was too preoccupied with getting his aunt out of the building to notice or care that much.

The pain in his chest and legs was overwhelmed by shock and adrenaline as he limped towards the door. Suddenly remembering that he hadn't been alone, Peter looked around, wondering where his partner had gone. The high schooler had the fleeting thought that Daredevil now knew what he looked like, but he couldn't dwell on it. Finally the teenager spotted the horned vigilante, and when he saw who the man was carrying over his shoulders, Peter could have shouted for joy.

An unconscious Zeke Stane, with a rather large goose-egg forming on his forehead, was flung over Daredevil's shoulders as man in red carried him like he weighed nothing. "Come on," the older vigilante growled as he passed Peter and May, kicking the front door down and exiting the building. The teenager began to follow, taking three steps towards the door before stopping and looking back.

"Peter?" May muttered quietly, her eyes opening as she looked around. Looking down at her, Peter's heart was torn. He needed to get his aunt out of the building and away from danger, but he also didn't want to just leave the rest of the villains unconscious or unaware of their impending doom.

"Kid!" Daredevil shouted, holding his hands out in an expectant manner. Peter looked back and shook himself out of his daze; he knew his aunt was his number one priority. He and May stumbled the rest of the way out of the building, and Peter was grateful for the cover of darkness so that his face was hidden from any cameras that might be around. Suddenly, May tripped over the sidewalk and the two of them began crashing down, but they were stopped before they hit the ground by a strong pair of hands.

Daredevil helped Peter and May walk to a safe-enough distance from the building before the two heroes gently lowered May to the ground. Once he was sure his aunt was reasonably safe, the teenager stood back up, looking at the building.

"Kid, whatever you're thinking of doing, don't," Daredevil cautioned, pretty sure he knew what the teenager was going to do.

"They're bad people, but they don't deserve to die," Peter argued, turning back and walking towards the building. As he lifted his hands to put his mask back on, Peter thought he heard Daredevil coming up behind him; the teenager turned to argue, lowering his mask again, but before he could say a single word, he suddenly felt shaky and lightheaded, and he collapsed to the ground.

"Kid?"

Peter heard Daredevil talking to him, but he could barely get up the strength to listen. Through a haze, he tried to think about what could be giving him this problem, and then he suddenly remembered that Mysterio had sprayed him with a nerve gas, and he'd been without his supply of oxygen for probably ten minutes or more. He tried lifting his head to tell his horned friend what was happening, but he didn't get a chance to get the words out because it was at that moment that the building exploded.

 _ **Okay! Lemme know what you thought! While I was editing, some of the sentences seemed really rough, but if you have any suggestions, let me know please! Just make it constructive criticism, not flames :)**_


	7. Chapter 7

**_Oh man..this is the last chapter..this is such a bittersweet moment for me XD Thank you all for sticking with this story and my crazy posting schedule!_**

 ** _Hey, if anyone has any prompts they want me to do, send them my way please! I'm always looking for new stuff to write :)_**

" _Stane, no!" Peter shouted, inching closer and closer towards Stane, who had his knife to his aunt's throat. "Let her go."_

" _This is all your fault, Peter," Stane said, though he wasn't sounding like Ezekiel Stane anymore. Peter shuddered internally at how familiar the voice sounded, but he shook his head. It couldn't be him…_

 _Suddenly Ezekiel began to change form right in front of Peter, and May was released, though she didn't run to Peter's open arms; she stayed next to the shifting man until he was finally done morphing. The high schooler backed away in horror as his Uncle Ben and Aunt May both walked towards him. Though May didn't have any visible wounds, her neck was at an odd angle, and her eyes were dull and lifeless; Ben's shirt was covered in blood and his eyes were the same as May's, but neither of their wounds seemed to impede their speed. "You could have saved us, Peter," the two of them said in unison._

" _I...I tried," Peter defended, a guilty feeling stabbing him over and over in the gut as he watched his two relatives. Suddenly from the shadows, another figure emerged and joined the first two people coming towards Peter, and the hero's eyes widened at the sight of Tony Stark. His mentor was pale, and he looked like he was having a hard time breathing._

" _How could you be sure it wasn't me in the chair, kid?" Stark asked, clearly more than a little ticked._

" _I just...everything made sense, and I-"_

" _No, that's not it," Stark snapped as he interrupted the high schooler. "You just wanted an excuse to leave me in that chair so you could save your aunt. You have no idea if it was really me or not!"_

" _Yes I… Stane even admitted…"_

" _Oh, so you're trusting Stane now?" Tony asked condescendingly._

" _I never should have let you continue being Spider-Man," May spat as they got closer to the younger man. "You only put everyone around you in danger by continuing. Look at us. Do you think any of this would have happened if you were just a normal high school student?" she asked accusingly, gesturing to the group._

" _I…" Peter didn't know what to say, or how to respond to his injured loved ones. Suddenly, his back hit a wall and he was forced to stop backing away from the three adults. He thought about moving to the side or swinging away on a web, but as if they'd heard his thoughts and knew what he was about to do, Aunt May, Uncle Ben, and Tony Stark were all suddenly surrounding him; they grabbed at him with clawed hands and ripped his suit apart. Each of them were throwing different insults and taunts at the high schooler, and though Peter hated even thinking about intentionally hurting his loved ones, he began fighting back against the hands holding him down. He kicked and punched and wiggled around, trying to get away from them, but it was no good; it was like his super strength was failing, and after a few more moments of fighting back, he felt himself succumbing to the force of his loved ones._

 _0-0-0_

"Kid. Kid, it's okay. Hey kid!"

Peter shot up off the pillows he was leaning against, looking around wildly as he tried to figure out what was going on.

"Easy, kid," a familiar voice said, though it sounded slightly strained. Peter looked to his right and saw Tony Stark standing above him, Peter's hand grabbing the front of his shirt. The high schooler looked around in confusion for a moment, wondering where he was and trying to figure out what was real and what was a dream. It was only after Tony requested that Peter let go of his shirt that the high schooler released the hold he had on the older man, sitting back in the bed of the room he was in.

"It's about time," Tony said lightly, though Peter thought he could see stress lines creasing the man's forehead. "You've been out for almost a whole day now."

Now that he had his senses a little more focused, Peter realized that he was in the hospital that he'd been taken to before, when Obadiah Stane had kidnapped him to get to Tony. He looked around himself in slight confusion, wondering how he'd gotten there and trying to remember what happened. Hearing what Tony had said about how long he'd been out, Peter felt like he'd been punched in the gut.

"A day? How did you...how did I...what…?"

"Well I don't know the full story, but I do know there was an explosion and your suit sent out a distress signal, but when I tracked it you and your aunt were already over a mile from the blast site, and uh...oh yeah, Ezekiel Stane is back in custody."

At that announcement, all the memories came flooding back to Peter in one stream, and he looked up at Tony with wide eyes. "Where's May?" he asked.

"She's fine," Stark assured him. "She's just in a room down the hall. Kid, are you gonna tell me what happened?"

After taking a few deep, calming breaths, trying to convince himself that he was safe, Peter gave the billionaire the watered-down version of the last twenty-four hours. When he finished, the older man looked intrigued.

"So it must have been Daredevil that got you two and Stane away from the blast, but why would he run and just leave you three alone?"

The teenager didn't have an answer to that, but it seemed that the billionaire mostly meant the question to be rhetorical, because he continued speaking. "As for the other five escaped prisoners, the police were able to catch a few more of them as they were escaping the building."

"Which ones?"

"They got the one guy with the uh, the armband, a guy with sandy blond hair, and someone who'd been shot in the side."

Peter's heart dropped a little. Mysterio, Shocker, and Chameleon had all been recaptured, but Rhino and Doc Ock were still at large. The high schooler wasn't too concerned about the Rhino; while he was scarily strong, even without his metal suit, the man wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, and Peter knew it would only be a matter of time before he was back in prison again. Octavius, though, was another story entirely. The man was smart, patient, and worst of all, he knew what Peter looked like under the mask. He didn't know the hero's name, but he knew enough about Peter's life that he could figure out the hero's secret identity rather quickly.

"I gotta go," Peter said, trying to pull the covers off himself. He let out a soft groan though as he was suddenly reminded that he had some pretty severe injuries across his body. Stark folded his arms across his chest and looked down at Peter skeptically.

"Gotta go where?"

"We need to find the other two and get them back behind bars," Peter said, still trying to get out of the bed, but moving much slower this time. Tony's gentle hand and stern gaze stopped him before he could get off the bed though.

"Hold on there, bucko," the billionaire said. "Why don't we leave that battle for another day? You took a pretty good beating."

"Mr. Stark, those guys are bad guys, we can't let them stay loose on the streets! They're gonna hurt people, and they're gonna go after people I care about again." That was Peter's worse fear, and it had become a reality. Granted, Chameleon had only been posing as Stark, but that didn't erase the fact that May had been put in mortal danger because of Peter's activities as Spider-Man, and the guilt was eating him up inside. Tony seemed to be able to read the kid's thoughts.

"First of all, we're not going to let them 'run loose' for long; just long enough to let you heal. I'm funding a new project, a prison for super-powered villains, so when they are brought in again, the prison will be more equipped at holding them and keeping them in. Second, don't blame yourself, kid. Take it from someone who knows, blaming yourself doesn't do anyone good; if anything, it just makes the problem worse."

Peter wanted to argue, but it was at that moment that the doctor decided to come in. Peter recognized him as the same man who treated him the last time the teenager was a patient, and he tried to remember the doctor's name; he knew it started with an F…

"Mr. Parker," the doctor greeted as he shut the door behind him. "And Mr. Stark. A pleasure to see you again."

Peter suddenly remembered that the doctor's name was Folsome, but he didn't bother saying anything. "So what's the deal, doc?" Stark asked, wrapping his hand around each other in front of him. The doctor looked back at Peter over his glasses.

"I'm not gonna lie, you took a pretty good beating," the doctor said, mirroring what Tony had said almost word for word. "Aside from the deep lacerations on your chest and the stab wound in your thigh, you have a severe concussion from what I'm assuming was a piece of flying debris from the explosion, and you're also suffering from what appears to be a homemade nerve gas. By the time Mr. Stark got you here, you were barely breathing. We were able to get the effects reversed, but you're lucky. Usually a dosage of that amount would have killed someone your size and age within a few hours, but it would seem like you had help. You should have been starved of oxygen, but your blood shows you had more in your blood than you should have for the amount of time you'd been exposed; it also seems like you had quite a bit of adrenaline pumping through your body, and adrenaline naturally helps slow the effects of the gas."

"So that was a long-winded explanation to say that…?" Stark asked somewhat exasperatedly. Folsome rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything in retaliation. He simply replied,

"It means that while Mr. Parker here is definitely not out of the woods yet and still has a hefty recovery process, he's extremely lucky, and he's going to make a full recovery."

The doctor gave the high schooler a warm smile before telling him to let him know if he needed anything, and then he walked out of the room, leaving Tony and the teenager inside. Peter felt a small sense of relief at the doctor's words, but he was still stressed about...well, everything. Octavius was out of prison, May had been put in danger, his suit was ruined, what had happened to Daredevil?… Suddenly his mind went back to his suit, and Peter looked at Mr. Stark with wide eyes.

"Uh, Mr. Stark, I uh...my suit got uh...I know it's expensive, and I know I messed up, but-"

"Kid, you're good," Tony interrupted, holding up his hand. "It's not like you went out and ripped it up or lost the mask on purpose; I'll get you a new one soon."

"Lost the mask?" Peter asked, not sure what the billionaire meant. Suddenly, he remembered that he'd been going to put his mask back on when Daredevil had tried to stop him from going back in the building, and he'd never finished putting the mask back on. He must have dropped it when the bomb exploded, and Daredevil was probably more concerned with getting everyone to safety than grabbing Peter's mask. The high schooler looked up at Stark guiltily. "I'm sorry, Mr. Stark," he muttered.

"Listen, you know I'm not good with the touchy-feely stuff, so let's just have you promise to be more careful in the future, and I'll have your new suit to you in a few days. Sound good?"

Peter nodded his head vigorously, then after his aching head reminded that he had a concussion, reduced the nodding to a thumbs-up. "Sounds good," he agreed.

Stark opened his mouth to reply, but the door was opened once again, and Peter saw May standing in the doorway staring at him with about a hundred different emotions on her face. "May," the younger man said quietly. Tony looked between the two of them before quietly muttering,

"I'm gonna just uh, go have a word with the doctor." The billionaire side-stepped May with a slight look of apprehension, as if she was going to start yelling at him, but Peter's aunt only had eyes for her nephew. She hurried forward and went in to squeeze the life out of him with a hug before remembering the wounds on his chest. She kept herself to a light hug, making sure to just get his shoulders.

When they were done embracing, Peter looked his aunt up and down, checking for any wounds. "Are you okay?" he asked. A strangled laugh was pulled from his aunt's throat and she gently grabbed the side of Peter's head with both hands, shaking him softly, though not so much that she strained his injuries.

"Am _I_ okay?" she asked incredulously, though very lovingly. "I'm not the one who got sprayed with a nerve gas, stabbed in the leg, and got his chest sliced open!"

"Seriously, it's not that bad," Peter tried assuring her, though he knew she didn't believe him at all. "The doctor said I'll heal up just fine, and with my fast healing, I'll be back to normal in a few days."

"Peter, I...I don't remember much of what happened, but I do remember you being there, and I remember feeling scared." Peter opened his mouth to assure her that he'd had everything covered, but she held up her hand and cut him off. "Not for me, but for you. You should never have been put in that situation, honey. Do you know how badly it would rip me up inside if you were killed? I don't know if I could live through that again."

Peter knew that when she said 'again,' she was referencing his Uncle Ben, and he shuddered internally, trying to keep the vivid images of his dream from coming back to the front of his mind. "May," he said, grabbing one of her hands in his. "I'm...I'm sorry that you got caught up in the middle of this, but I promise. I can take care of myself. And if I can't, I've always got friends who can help me out when I need it. I also know that I've always got you in my corner, and that's enough to keep me fighting through anything, no matter how bad the odds are." The teenager felt slightly embarrassed as he felt tears welling in his eyes, but he buried the embarrassment; this was his aunt, and she was safe.

"Of course I'm here for you, Peter," May said, her voice also sounding like she was starting to choke up. "I just don't want to lose you."

"You won't," Peter promised. "No matter what it takes, I'm always going to find a way to come home."

"But what if you can't, Peter? What if you face someone, some _thing_ that's better than you are, and you can't come home?" Now the tears were rolling down May's cheeks, but she didn't wipe them away. Peter remained silent; he knew there was always a chance that he'd meet someone who was better than him, and he didn't know how to comfort his aunt.

"I...I don't know," he finally admitted. "But we can't sit around waiting for it to happen," he continued. "If that's all I'm focused on, people are going to get hurt, people that I could have been saving. People like you," he added in a quieter voice.

"Peter…" May stroked his face with her hand, and the two of them sat in silence for a few moments. Finally, May spoke again. "What am I gonna do with you?" she asked, sounding very much like she did when she first found out Peter was Spider-Man.

"Not take away my Spider-Man suit?" Peter suggested playfully, though he was completely serious at the same time. His aunt rolled her eyes at her nephew, and she shook her head.

"No, I won't do that," she assured him. "I can see how much this means to you, I just hope you can see that there are other things in this life that are important too."

"I know," Peter replied. "I promise, I'll be more careful in the future. But you have to be too," he added with a gentle nudge.

"Hey," May said with a chuckle. "I got in a few good whacks with a pot before Stane got the better of me," she informed her nephew proudly.

"Yeah?" Peter asked with a wide grin, the image of May wielding a pot replacing the zombified dream people in his mind. "You pulled a Flynn Rider?"

"Please," May scoffed jokingly. "Flynn Rider pulled a May Parker."

The two of them sat and talked in Peter's hospital room for several more minutes, and when Tony Stark poked his head back inside, neither of them noticed him. The billionaire smiled a small smile, backing away from the room to give the two of them privacy.

 _0-0-0_

A few days later, after being released from the hospital (the doctor wasn't willing to let him go home as soon as he had the last time he'd been there), Peter was sitting on one of the chairs in his and May's apartment, reading over one of his school books. May had called the school and informed them that Peter had come down with some horrible disease and that he was restricted to their home; they even had a note from the doctor saying that the teenager was unfit to go to school for at least a week, possibly more, so Peter was stuck at home.

May had gone to the store to pick up a few things, after Peter promised her for over an hour that he would be okay on his own while she went out. It took some convincing but finally his aunt left, and Peter was alone in the apartment. Ned had emailed him the assignments he was missing, along with the notes his friend had taken, and that was what Peter was currently working on. The television was playing quietly in the background, and every so often, the high schooler would glance up at the news stories playing across the screen. He was waiting to hear anything about the remaining escaped villain's whereabouts, but so far they hadn't surfaced.

As the high schooler looked at the screen again, hoping that something had changed within the last five minutes, he could hear May chiding him in his head, reminding him how he promised he would stay off his leg as much as possible for the next week at least, even though he would heal faster than that. He knew he promised to not chase after any bad guys until he was healed completely, but he tried to reason with himself that he would only do it if it were an emergency, and finding Octavius and Rhino would definitely count as one of those.

After watching the news and disappointedly realizing nothing had changed within the past five minutes, Peter went back to work on the chemistry problem he'd been working on...that, and figuring out tweaks for his web fluid. He was also fiddling around, drawing and designing different gadgets he think would be cool to add onto his suit, like ways to change his web cartridges without having to pause and reload them himself. Okay, basically his homework was sitting to the side as he worked on those two things and listened to the news.

As he was busy procrastinating his homework, Peter heard a knock on the door. He sat up straighter, wincing slightly as he realized his previous posture had been smashing the cuts on his chest. He stared at the door warily; he hadn't been expecting anyone, and May wouldn't knock if she needed help getting groceries inside. She would just yell, and the high schooler didn't hear any yelling. He waited another moment, and the knock on the door sounded again.

Peter moved to get off the chair, then hesitated. He didn't feel anything with his spidey-senses, but that also didn't mean that whoever was outside the door wasn't friendly. He finally decided to risk it, grabbing one of his homemade gloves with the web shooters on them; Mr. Stark was working on fixing his other suit, so for now, the homemade suit was all he had again, though May wasn't about to let him out of the house to do any hero-ing for a while.

Peter limped towards the door as he put on his glove, trying not to put any weight on his injured leg if he could help it. Once he had his glove on, he stuck his hand behind his back, just in case the person at the door happened to be one of his neighbors bringing him and May dinner or something. The last few steps to the door hurt Peter's leg more than he thought it would, and he had to pause and put his hand on the counter to give himself the chance to take the weight off his foot. As he was standing there, the knock sounded again on the door. None of the knocks were sounding irritated or angry, and Peter couldn't help thinking that if whoever was out there was actually a threat, they would have knocked the door down, or at least knocked a little harder.

"Coming," he called out, still holding his gloved hand with the web shooter behind his back; better safe than sorry. He finally reached the door and peered through the peephole, wondering if it really was any of his neighbors. The man with the dark glasses standing outside didn't look familiar, and Peter was almost positive that he didn't live in the building, so the high schooler felt a bit of tension beginning to creep back into his body, but he took a breath and opened the door a crack.

When he was face to face with the man, making sure to keep his webbing hand ready, Peter suddenly realized that what he'd originally thought were sunglasses were actually glasses that blind people wore, and the teenager felt a small stab of guilt, though he pushed it aside, just in case this man was up to no good.

"Hi," Peter greeted cordially. The man tilted his head towards Peter when the teenager spoke, and Peter wondered if the man actually posed any danger. For some reason, Peter felt like he knew the man, though he couldn't quite place where from.

"Peter?" the stranger asked. The high schooler was about to respond when he noticed that while the man was holding his walking stick in one hand, his other hand was behind his back, which set Peter feeling slightly on edge, so he just responded,

"I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"Sort of," the blind man said with a small smile. Once again, Peter had the strange feeling that he knew the man standing in front of him, but he figured he'd remember if he knew a blind man or not. Still, there was something about the man's voice… Peter's thoughts were cut off as the man in his doorway continued speaking. "I'm sorry, my name is Matt."

Peter found that even more odd; why did the man feel the need to introduce himself if they 'sort of' knew each other?

"I believe I have something that belongs to you," Matt continued, bringing his hidden hand out from behind his back. Peter tensed and prepared to bring out his web shooters, but the man at his door simply brought out a flat box, holding it out to Peter. The teenager raised an eyebrow at the man, then shook his head, remembering that the _blind_ man couldn't see his gesture.

"You uh, you expect me to accept a suspicious package from a 'sort of' stranger?" he asked skeptically. Matt sighed, then replied,

"Look, if I'd wanted to hurt you, I would have done it by now," he assured the high schooler. Peter wanted to scoff, but there was something about the way the man said it that made the teenager believe what the blind man said. Slowly, the younger man reached out and accepted the package with his free hand, still prepared to fire a web if his senses gave him any sort of indication that something was off. When Matt didn't run away after Peter took the package, the teenager figured it was a pretty good sign that there wasn't anything explosive in the package...unless the man had a death wish.

The high schooler almost brought his second hand out from behind the door since Matt was blind, but then he stopped himself; what if he was simply pretending to be blind?

 _Well, you can't open the package with just one hand,_ Peter reminded himself. After a few moments of debating on what to do, Peter finally dragged his glove off his hand against the door before putting it in his pocket, figuring he had fast enough reflexes, and senses that would give him enough notice if he needed to grab it out again.

He began to pry the tape off the package, opening up the flap. Once the package was actually open, Peter held it away from his face slightly, still paranoid about being sprayed in the face with anything, thanks to Beck's nerve gas. When nothing visible came out of the package, Peter brought it forward a little at a time, finally peering into it, though he still kept his head strained back as far as he could while still being able to see inside.

Something red sat inside, and Peter's eyes widened when he recognized it. He looked up at Matt, who was smirking slightly, and then the teenager carefully reached into the package, pulling out his Spider-Man mask. "How did you...why...what...I mean, uh, what is this?" he finally asked, trying to play cool, as if he didn't know what the mask was.

"Peter, I know you're...him," Matt said, leaning closer and lowering his voice to a whisper.

"How? Who are you?" Peter looked at Matt expectantly, though he never could have prepared himself for what came out of the man's mouth next.

"It's a long story."

 _0-0-0_

"Spider-Man is going to pay for what he did," Octavius seethed as he watched the wall crawler swinging around on the news a few weeks after the whole Stane debacle.

"And what are you doing about it?" Rhino asked as he shoved a donut in his mouth. Octavius made a disgusted face at his companion, but the Russian didn't seem to care as he continued to stuff his face. Finally Otto rolled his eyes and replied.

"Stane had the right idea. As much as I hate to admit it, Spider-Man is weaker against a team than he is one-on-one. That team just needs a better leader than a normal man with a grudge," he added disdainfully.

"And who would lead new team? You?"

Octavius looked at the Rhino with a raised eyebrow. "You think you have the brains to lead a team of super-powered villains?"

Rhino considered the question for a moment, his forehead wrinkling as he seemed to struggle with the idea. Finally, he shook his head. "No," he agreed. "Not me. But there are many questions to ask," he added. "Who will be on team is good place to start."

"It can't be very many people," Octavius agreed. "We need a small, manageable number. I think six worked out fairly well, don't you?"

"Da," Rhino said with a shrug. "I guess."

"And we can only take people who have actual benefit to the team; Stane had a decent head on his shoulders, but he was driven by pure rage alone, and he had no powers. He was a liability, and we can't afford to have those on our team if we want to get proper revenge on Spider-Man."

Rhino finished chewing and swallowing his donut before he continued their conversation. "So when do we start?"

"Right now," Octavius replied with a small smile that slowly spread across his face. "Let's start putting together our own team."

 _ **Okay, I know, it's kinda a weird place to end it, but I figured we could leave it open for possible future stories, though I don't have any in the works currently. So what did you guys think? Final thoughts?**_

 _ **I thought the hospital scene was rough, but I'm honestly so terrible at the comfort part of "hurt/comfort," so please forgive me for that! I think they were all OOC, but I just... *shrugs***_

 _ **Also, what did you guys think of Daredevil there at the end? I wasn't sure if it was too much or not, so let me know what you guys thought!**_

 _ **Thank you again to everyone who commented, favorited, and/or followed this story! You are all amazing!**_

 _ **Till next time!**_


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